Learning to Fall
by Kanika Meskhenet
Summary: AU. Thanks to Sora's impeccable driving he the the others crash land in our world. However things aren't always as simple as they seem when the Keyblade master is involved. The heartless show up soon after and take over. RxOC, SxOC, AkuRoku, MxOc, ZxOC
1. Chapter 1

This is a collaborative story written by RemindsMeOfAWestsideStory, MysticalManAsh, myself, and our friend Katie. None of us own Kingdom Hearts or Disney, they belong to their respective owners.

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**Learning To Fall**

The weekend had gone by too fast, the group knew Katie's parents wouldn't be home for days, but regardless, having the old gang together for one last summer before they all headed off to college was nice. Between, staying up all night, eating mashed potatoes, playing with M&Ms, the group had done nothing more then watch TV. An alien TV show had left everyone on edge, making them feel the need to wear bowls on their heads.

"This is silly!" Katie urged, trying to get her friends to remove her parents' cooking utensils from their heads. Taryn closed her DS and looked over the back of the chair, a colander swinging around as she spoke,

"NO! The aliens are coming for us!" She said, peering around suspiciously.

"Ashley wants an anal probe!" Alex announced to everyone.

"Hey! ...Yeah. I do." She admitted, everyone staring.

"I'm not gonna lie to you guys." She said, looking back at her own DS. The group was occupying themselves with playing Kingdom Hearts. Alex had the second game in the series up on the TV, Taryn and Ashley both padded away on their DSs, helping Roxas try to regain his memory. Katie sighed, defeated, and she looked at the TV as a man with large red hair screamed,

"_I'M SO FLATTERED_!" And all the females, minus herself, giggled giddily. All motion stopped as there was a loud crash outside, and the power flicked off.

A loud high pitched shriek followed shortly after the power cut off, it was a well-known fact among their group that Taryn was absolutely terrified of the dark; they could hear her ragged breathing as she desperately tried to keep herself from hyperventilating.

"Oh God! The aliens are here!" Alex jumped, turning to Katie, or at least she thought it was her blonde haired friend, though in fact it had been the metal arm of the futon.

Katie, always the voice of reason and logic, let out a long drawn out sigh at her dramatic friends, "Guys calm down, it's just a little power outage." And promptly crawled down the stairs to grab a couple flashlights from the kitchen drawers before coming back up the stairs.

"Oh Saïx just upped my rank!" Ashley exclaimed proudly, not at all bothered by the darkness of the house as she continued to play her DS.  
Just as Katie handed out the flashlights to her friends the sound of glass shattering from downstairs was heard echoing through the silent and darkened house. Everyone froze, flashlights in hand, sending each other horrified grimaces.

Something out the window caught Taryn's eye and she moved forward to get a better look, all color draining from her already pale face.

"Guys…how come all the other houses still have power? This is really sketchy…" She bit her lip, nervously playing with her lip-ring.

"It's probably the cats that made all that noise downstairs…" Katie tried to reason, but found that she couldn't explain the lack of power throughout the house, "I think we're all just over reacting, we've all got flash-lights so let's go down and investigate."

Taryn and Alex exchanged glances, both shaking their heads in unison while Ash shrugged and turned off her DS to follow after Katie.

"Come on you two, stop being cowards!" She groaned, latching on to Alex's sleeve, who in turn grabbed on to Taryn's. If she was being forced to go down there then so was Taryn.

As everybody got to the doorway, they all froze, dismissing any realist attitudes any of them may have had. Being the most familiar with the area, Katie took a step outside and began to look around. She was followed by Ashley who gasped and stated obviously,

"Hey Karls, that gaping crater hasn't always been in your back yard!"

"What?!" Alex shrieked. Taryn whimpered and hid behind her.

Katie just shook her head and neared the wreckage with Ashley who had long ago taken off her "defense helmet", but was still armed with a rubber spatula which was tucked in her belt. She wasn't afraid to use it if she had to. Katie remained quiet, and Ashley again, exclaimed with a bluntness to her tone,

"Well damn!"

What they saw was what appeared to be a rocket, several feet in the ground of Katie's own back yard. It was honestly hard to tell because of the darkness, the rubble, and the fact that nobody here had perfect vision. Not even Katie who had already taken out her contacts for the night. Ashley stepped closer and squinted. When she was able to make out the vivid red and yellow colors of the craft, she turned around and said more seriously,

"Um, guys. I think you might want to see this."

She was always more serious when her sanity was on the line. She had to know if she was the only one seeing this or not.

Alex moved forward, and laughed nervously,

"That looks like the gummi ship from Kingdom Hearts. This is a weird dream…" She said, shifting her weight.

"That we're ALL having?!" Taryn cried, looking towards the dark. They looked at each other and pushed Alex forward,

"You're Prongs, you go investigate." She looked back at them flatly and she pulled the ladle from her pocket, holding it in front of her. She walked forward, when the door to the thing opened. She screamed, and fell backwards, causing whoever came out of the ship to scream in a more masculine tone and, and trip over the door, landing face first on top of her on the ground.

"PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" She screamed, trying to cover her face, but she hit spiky hair.

"I won't hurt you if you don't hurt me!" Came a voice she knew very well.

"S-S-Sora?!" She gasped. Low and behold, the boy laying a top her was, in fact, an exact copy of the video games. She looked as someone pulled him up with a flat expression,

"Good job landing the ship." Said a silver haired, well muscled boy. The next thing she knew, Taryn was off the porch, and running towards the other.

"RIKUUUUUUUUUUUU!" She screamed, sounding more like a battle cry then a sound of affection. Before he knew what hit him, he was on his back. All eyes went to Ash and Katie as a large portal opened before them, and out stepped a pink haired man, who was also soon on his back, struggling for freedom. No sooner was he there, that there was YET ANOTHER portal and out stepped a red head and a little blond, Katie, calmly as she could, cocked her head to the side, and looked at the red head.

"I'm so flattered." She mumbled, staring at him. He raised an eyebrow, and he looked at the scene before him,

"What the hell happened here?"

Everyone seemed to be wondering the exact same thing, not a word was uttered in answer to the question posed. No one knew exactly what to say in this situation, it was all too surreal.

"What the hell? Get off me, woman!" Came the poisonous voice of the feathery pink haired man as he tried to pry the girl off of him, but to no avail. Ashley mumbled something unintelligible against the warm leather of his cloak, but it had sounded a lot like 'no!'

The spiky haired keyblade master tilted his head to the side in confusion, blinking stupidly at Alex who had a goofy grin tugging at the corners of her lips. She couldn't believe it! Sora was actually here, he was real!

"How...." He shook his head, still giving her his undivided attention, "how did you know my name? Have we met before?" If they had met then he unfortunately didn't remember her, he racked his brain for any memories that included this tiny brunette...but none came to mind.

"Nope, but my name is Alex!" She chirped.

The silver haired boy stared down at the vertically challenged girl, his turquoise eyes narrowing in bewilderment at the way she was affectionately clinging to him as if she knew him!

"I'm sorry...er..." He started, glancing around at the group for help.

Katie rolled her eyes, "Padfoot let the poor boy go, you too Wormtail."

"No!" Came the chorused voices of Taryn and Ashley who both clung to the boys even tighter.

"Eh, can't say that I didn't try." The blonde haired girl shrugged before addressing the group as a whole, "Alright, so mind telling me why there's a gaping hole in the middle of my backyard? You guys better clean this up, my parents are gonna be home in a few days and if they see this they're gonna flip!"

The tall red haired man laughed, "Wow, you idiots really did a number to her yard, didn't you? Oh, by the way, the name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

From her position latched around Riku's waist Taryn let out a small squeal at hearing the pyromaniac's famous catch phrase.

Being one of the few that were free to look around, Alex noticed that the smaller blonde who had emerged with Axel had not spoken once. In fact, it almost looked as though he were hiding behind the taller man, which gave them the idea that Axel was the only one around that the boy was comfortable with. Alex all at once came at Axel, much too quickly, startling the boy. She shrieked,

"Are you two lovers?!"

Axel let out a loud hardy laugh that made everybody squeal or giggle at least a little bit.

"This is Roxas. I like to think of him as my little zombie. I know what he's thinking at all times," Axel pointed out.

"How cute!" All of the girls, with the exception of Katie, fawned.

Everyone turned when they heard a clatter from the hole in the ground again. There was some shrill and unintelligent squabbling about leaving the controls to an idiot, and then another pair of strangers crawled out of the mess. Well, everyone thought they were strangers... but even Katie recognized them. She was so beside herself by now that her balance had taken a back seat to shock and fell backwards onto the ground and with a crack in her voice, she screeched,

"Donald and Goofy too?!"

Donald took some time to straighten some ruffled feathers, and not even taking time to look around at his new surroundings or the girls, he marched right over to Sora and started mouthing off about how this was his fault.

While this was going on, there was something off in the distance that had gotten Roxas' attention, so he tugged on Axel's sleeve and pointed to the roof of Katie's house.

"Hey look, there's something on the roof over there, guys," Axel translated casually. Everybody looked to see what it was, but all they could make out of it was a shadow, making them all even more nervous than they all had been that night, much to the expense of Riku and Marluxia who were only squeezed tighter. There was a frustrated shout, and the shadow had fallen off the roof with a thud. Everybody ran to its side with the theory that there's no way it could get any worse.

"Hey guys, it's Zexion! Katie, Zexion just fell off of your roof!" Alex shouted to Katie who was behind her.

"Who?" Katie asked, exasperated. She had already had enough!

"Get away from me, fools!" He shouted, getting back up on his feet.

"Oh boy! Now it's a party!" Taryn said, excited, "I know! I need my camera! Oh my God, this is so great!" And with that, Taryn bolted back in to the house, but it didn't take long until everyone heard a crash and a thud from inside.

Everyone entered the house warily, looking for Taryn, who had gone through the kitchen, and seemed hadn't been able to stop on her way towards the hallways leading to the rec room stairs. She laid on her back, and everyone simply stared for a moment, until Sora broke the silence,

"Is she dead?" He asked, looking around for someone to answer him. Riku stepped forward, and placed his index and middle finger on her neck. He rolled his eyes and shook his head,

"No, she just…knocked herself out." He picked her up, and Katie told him how to find the guest room. At this point they all decided to break for the night…and try to get some sleep before the noises from the house could wake the neighbors and cause more trouble, the last thing Katie needed was a crater in the back yard and a visit from the police.

"DIBS ON SORA, AXEL AND ROXAS!" Alex announced loudly. Everyone winced at the loudness of her voice but no one objected. They followed her to the rec room, and left the others standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"I'll take Marly! We can sleep in your parent's room! Oh my God it's like playing house! Babies!" Ash screamed, grabbing his arm and taking off up the stairs on the other side of the house. Katie blinked, and didn't really know what to say.

"I guess you guys can take the couches…or some come with me, I guess it doesn't matter." Zexion said nothing, but he followed her up the stairs, while Donald and Goofy took the couches in the den. Boy, they were all in for an exciting night.

As everyone went their separate ways with the Kingdom Hearts boys no one even thought to introduce themselves, it had completely slipped from their thoughts.

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Riku carried the unconscious girl bridal style up the stairs to the guest bedroom, following the directions that the blonde had previously explained to him. He almost slipped on the slick wooden steps but caught himself, regaining balance rather quickly before making it up to the second floor of the house. The door was partially open so he took his leg and kicked it open all the way before entering, not even bothering to search for the light switch. She was out cold anyway (and from what he could tell the power seemed to be out anyway, so flicking the switch really wouldn't have made a difference anyhow) and wouldn't know the difference.

He gently laid her down on the bed, debating whether or not he should leave her on top of the covers or if he should tuck her in for good measure. Shaking his head he stepped closer to the bed, lifting her just enough so that he could pull the covers out from underneath her and help her get underneath. Riku ran a hand through his mess of shaggy silver locks, slipping off her shoes to reveal two mismatched socks; one black and grey striped one and the other a bright lime-green one. He couldn't help but to arch an eyebrow at her apparent stylish fashion sense, despite himself he felt his lips twitching at the corners. She may not have made the best first impression, but she sure was interesting.

The 19 year old boy pulled the covers up and over her before turning around to leave through the open door. He had taken not even 2 steps away from the bed when he felt a hand grasp at his wrist, Riku glanced over his shoulder to see the short brunette sitting up in the bed, staring at him with the most pathetic expression he had ever seen. She looked scared.

"Don't leave…please…?" She whimpered, tightening her grip around his wrist while staring down at the sheets scattered around her, bunching her other fist in to the fabric.

"I thought you were sleeping," He mused, "I should probably check on Sora, make sure he's not annoying everyone with his idiocy."

Taryn bit her lip, "I hit that wall pretty hard, I could have a concussion and pass out again as soon as you leave and no one would know that I was dead until you found my body in the morning! And then everyone would know that I was dead because you didn't stay with me for the night and instead opted to make fun of Sora. Then you'd have to live with the fact that you indirectly killed an innocent girl, though I wouldn't make it easy on you either, because I'd come back as a ghost and haunt you until your last day as well. There'd be no end my haunting, not even in death because you'd never get rid of me, ever!"

He stared at her for a minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes. It was the longest silence she had ever endured, it felt like it lasted for an eternity to Taryn!

Before breaking out in to a wide grin and laughing, "You really are overdramatic, aren't you?"

Taryn wasn't sure whether to take offense to that comment or to view it as a compliment.

"Alright, I'll stay, I'm sure the others can keep an eye on Sora, make sure he doesn't do anything _too_ stupid." He grinned, feeling her grip loosen before her hand dropped back to her lap.

"Thanks Riku…"

He flopped down on of the bed next to her, laying atop the covers with his arms folded behind his head casually, peering over at her with his dazzling turquoise eyes.

"So, what's your story? How do you know my name and I don't know yours?"

She ran a nervous hand through her choppy golden-brown hair, stopping at the back of her neck where she rested her hand there, glancing up at him through her side-swept bangs. Taryn wasn't sure what exactly she should tell him, how could she possibly answer that question so that she didn't have to tell him the truth but make whatever she was to say sound believable?

"You just…look like a Riku." She paused, "And my name is Taryn, by the way."

He stared blankly at her, blinking a few times, "You really expect me to buy that?"

She laughed sheepishly, "I guess not. Er…where do I start…?"

It took her less time to explain to him about the game and how she and her friends knew who he and his friends were than she had originally expected. He took it rather well, giving her his undivided attention as she spoke.

"—and that's the basic plot of Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, Chain of Memories, and 358/2 Days…any questions?"

"Well, considering the fact that what you've just told me is a completely accurate depiction of all of our lives I should say that no questions really need to be asked aside from the one; how the hell did anyone find out about us to be able to make not one but many games about our lives?" He tilted his head, repositioning himself sideways so that he was facing her.

A light tinge of pink dusted over her cheeks when she noticed him staring at her, Taryn nervously fidgeted with her lip-ring out of habit. He was still staring! It was unwavering, making her feel anxious and giddy at the same time.

"I..um…" She wasn't usually at a loss for words like she was now, but he made her feel absolutely flustered. He was devastatingly handsome and he was lying right next to her in the bed! She was tempted to jump his bones, but was way too shy about herself to actually follow through with it.

Riku, noticing how uneasy she looked, leaned towards her and smirked deviously, "Do I make you uncomfortable?"

She jumped at the sudden invasion of space, subconsciously backing away from him, "No, I---ahh!"

Taryn let out a startled cry as she fell backwards off the bed, the silver haired boy reached forward and latched on to her arm, only to be pulled down with her. They landed with a –_thud_—on the floor in a tangled mess of sheets and legs.

Riku's arms were on either side of Taryn's shoulders, holding his upper body up and keeping himself from completely crushing her underneath his weight. If someone had walked in at that precise moment it wouldn't have looked good for the two of them as their position was a rather compromising one. Taryn stared up at him with wide eyes, of course something like this would happen to her; she had the worst of luck. Not saying that this was necessarily a bad thing, no, she quite enjoyed the position she was in with Riku, but…gorgeous guys like him made her feel way too self-conscious about herself, it was ridiculous.

The keyblade wielder stared down at her, his gaze lingering on her soft pale lips, wondering what it'd be like to kiss someone with a lip-ring. He'd kissed plenty of girls in his lifetime, but never any with piercings, this would certainly be a new experience for him, and he was quite sure that it'd be an enjoyable one at that. He made up his mind, leaning down to her level, her eyes half-lidded and waiting for him to close the distance between them. He was a hairs length away from her lips when they heard a loud obnoxious squeaking from the other room, followed by what sounded suspiciously like the head-board of someone's bed banging against the wall.

"What was that?" Riku's head snapped up in the direction of the still opened door.

Taryn blanched as realization hit her, "That would be…Ash and Marluxia…"

Whatever intimacy they had been about to share was quickly killed by the two in the other room down the hall, making both Riku and Taryn feel awfully awkward. The noises increased, becoming louder and louder and more frequent, Riku rolled off of her and skillfully untangled himself from the sheets and her legs, stumbling over to the door and slamming it closed. That did little to muffle the action taking place in Katie's parents' room.

Taryn kicked at the sheets around her legs, only succeeding in tangling herself up even more. Riku leaned up against the door, arms crossed and an amused smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Having trouble there?"

Cocky bastard.

She bit her lip, her eyes roaming over the sheets and then over himself. Seeing her look so helpless, so…innocent made something stir within him, he just wanted to hold her. She was just too damn cute. Riku strode forwards, kneeling beside her and tugging at the sheets which effortlessly came away from her legs, he held the fabric in his hand with an arrogant grin directed towards her.

"Thanks…" She held out her hand to him expectantly, to which Riku promptly grabbed on to to help her to her feet. He had pulled her a little too aggressively, causing her to be flung in to his chest, they stayed like that for a moment; his arms wrapped loosely around her waist with her hands pressed gently against his shirt, she could feel just how toned his chest was through the thin fabric.

The noises from the other room subsided for a moment before picking back up, causing Taryn to blush profusely at the awkwardness of the situation.

Riku scrunched up his nose. "Is your friend always like this? I can't imagine anyone who'd want to fuck such an effeminate asshole like Marluxia."

She stifled a giggle, completely agreeing with him, "He's such a mega-fruit, but she finds him attractive, just like Alex is attracted to Sora. We've all got different tastes in guys."

"So one friend is attracted to the fruity flower guy and the other has the hots for the doofy idiot…what about you? What type of guy are you in to?" He leaned closer to her, bringing his face closer to hers so that his forehead was resting against hers, staring fixatedly in to her hazel eyes.

She hadn't been anticipating that question.

Taryn stared back in to his turquoise eyes defiantly before losing all courage and glancing away, she had always had issues with keeping eye contact with people, mostly with guys but it also happened with her girl friends as well. She had been told that it was because of her uncertainty in herself and with fact that her self confidence was barely even existent.

He was toying with her, of course he could tell that she was attracted to him, Riku was just being his cocky self with teasing her like that.

"The arrogant badass." She answered playfully.

Riku let out a bark of laughter, "I thought so. Now that that's out in the open, what say you to getting to know each other a bit more? You seem to know everything about me and my friends, but I don't know anything about you."

He steered her back over towards the bed where they both plopped down next to each other, turned on their sides so that they could see the other better.

"What do you want to know?" She asked him curiously.

"What's your favorite color?"

Taryn laughed, "Are you seriously asking me that?"

"Just answer the question." He grinned.

She thought about it for a moment, "Well, I have a couple; blue, silver, lime green, purple and pink."

"Alright, what's your favorite season?"

"Winter and fall." She answered without hesitation.

"Really? Why?" Riku arched an eyebrow skeptically.

"Yeah, I love snow and cold weather. We don't get much of it down here in South Carolina…"

He nodded, "Fair enough. Hmm…what're you scared of?"

"Don't laugh at me, kay?" She paused, watching him make an 'x' over his heart as a promise, "Alright, well…zombies and volcanoes, oh! And the dark, I'm absolutely terrified of being alone in the dark."

"Those are rather silly, Taryn, with the exception of the darkness…is there anything else you're afraid of?"

Her tongue shot out at him indignantly for making fun of her fears. Her hazel eyes immediately saddened and he noticed her somber change. There was something else, something she didn't really like to talk about because she feared that if she did then it'd become a reality and come true.

"What is it…?" He moved closer to her, concerned.

"I…I'm scared of losing my friends." She mumbled quietly, "I'm afraid that after I move to New York they won't…they'll just forget all about me and all the amazing memories we've had together and then I'll just be…alone."

Riku frowned, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her towards him in a reassuring embrace, resting his head on top of her head which was snuggled in to the crook of his neck.

"That won't happen, trust me, your friends will always be there for you." The silver-haired boy told her confidently.

She wasn't so sure.

"How do you know?"

He chuckled, "Are you seriously asking me that question? You know all about what happened the first time I was tempted in to the darkness, being pulled away from my friends by the jealousy inside of me. After everything that had happened, all that I had done, after being worlds apart…Sora and Kairi never lost hope. They still believed in me after all I had done."

He had a point there, he and Sora and Kairi were still the best of friends, even after everything they had gone through.

"So that's how I know that your friends will never forget about you, you may be miles away, but you'll always be in their hearts and them in yours." He felt her relax in to him and knew that she was probably exhausted from the day's events.

"Thanks…Riku." She whispered tiredly, he could feel her warm breath on his skin, sending a shiver up his spine.

"Good night, Taryn." He mumbled in to her hair, taking in the flowery scent of whatever shampoo that she had used.

"Mm, night Riku."

That's how they slept, her practically on his lap cuddling in to his chest, while his back was up against the headboard of the bed, arms wrapped securely around her waist.

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Ash tugged the struggling Nobody up the stairs.

"Unhand me!" He cried, getting no response. She tugged him into the room at the top of the stairs, and slammed the door. She jerked his weapon from him, and tossed it into a wall with a loud clatter.

"Cloths, off with them." She said, heading towards a closet. She grabbed some men's ties belonging to Katie's father, and she threw them on the bed. She grabbed the zipper on his jacket, and yanked it off, exposing his pale chest to her. She licked her lips, and she pushed his guarded form onto the bed, and he landed with a bounce. She grabbed one of the ties and bound his arm, then grabbed the other and bound the others to the bedposts. She smiled as he struggled, but couldn't free himself. All those years in ROTC had taught her a few things, and knots were one of them.

"What are you doing!?" He cried, almost sounding…scared. He could feel the leather pants he wore gradually getting tighter at the dominance of this female, but he didn't even know her name.

"Before we do this…at least tell me who you are and what you are to me!" He demanded, struggling less and less. She spoke,

"My name is Ashley. You are my favorite character from a video game series that's popular here." She said nothing else, but that was fair enough, it's what he wanted to know. He watched her reach for her shirt, and tugged it over her head, tossing it to the floor. He smiled as his eyes flitted over her blue leopard print lacy bra and he looked back up at her face, he had to admit, she was hot. Long legs, big boobs, more than he expected when she removed her shirt. He struggled a bit more, and she smiled wider. She took her pants off, and dropped the cloths to the floor in a heap. She moved towards the bed, and she began to tug at his pants, exposing naked thighs. She leaned forward and she took the tip of him in her mouth, making him cry out, and jut his hips forward in a thrust. She swirled her tongue around him, and moved lower on him. He thrashed at his restraints, sending the bed clattering into the wall loudly. She pulled off him after a few more moments, and he seemed disappointed. She tugged his pants off the rest of the way, and she climbed on the bed further.

"Sit up." She told him, helping him get up the rest of the way. He leaned in a sitting position against the headboard as she began taking her bra off. He groaned, and he fought harder, the bed clanging harder against the wall then times past. They looked up as they hard a banging from the other side and Ashley rolled her eyes, ignoring her friend in the rec room.

Marluxia didn't know anything about these feelings. He'd felt lust before…or so he thought, maybe lust of some kind, but it was nothing close to this. This world was strange, here, he almost felt…. human. Vulnerable and pathetic. He zoned out while he was sitting there, staring and he then came back to reality, screaming as something engulfed him so completely he could do nothing else.

"Dear God!" He cried, arching off the headboard as the girl he barely knew rode him. She knew what she was doing, he would give her that, and he wanted to touch her, so he broke the restraints, sending shards of tie all over the bed. He grabbed her and flipped them, his long legs kicking the headboard yet again. The sound was louder than before, and the clattering continued. They both looked up with straining faces as a door slammed across the hallway, and they shrugged. He grabbed her hips, and he groaned when she shifted herself against him. He moved his hands up her body, and he gripped her chest, fondling her screaming form as he continued to thrust into her.

He knew neither of them could last much longer, and he felt her clench around him, and he leaned down, taking her neck in his mouth, biting down harshly, helping her along. She screamed even louder, wrapping her legs around him, and she spasmed, clenching tighter, and taking him with her this time. He grunted, and he bit hard enough to draw blood. He licked it off her neck as they both began to calm down, crawling up towards the head of the bed, panting. She fell on him, and was sleeping. He looked down at her, the large bruise on her neck, and he smiled, despite the awkwardness,

"Strange girl." He said, actually feeling tired and the need to sleep, which he wasn't used to.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Katie led the way upstairs, and went to retrieve a sleeping bag from the closest. She left the sleeping bag next to the door and she went to go get ready for bed. As she left, Zexion began to look around her room. He looked at picture, recognizing some of the girls he'd seen earlier, but not everyone. He looked into her desk drawers. He furrowed his brow as he found a giant penny, and he picked it up.

"This is huge…" He mumbled to himself, flipping it around in his hands. He placed it down, and he moved back around her room. He sat himself on her bed, and he laid back. How'd he end up here anyhow? He sighed, closed his eyes for a moment. He felt fatigue for the first time in…he didn't know how long, and he didn't like it one bit. He slowly opened his eyes and came face to face with a pair of large eyes above him. He furrowed his brow and he reached up, grabbing the large egg shaped pillow with eyes. He sat up and he held it up, spinning it around in his hands. Katie came back to see him playing with it.

"Do you like boobahs?" She asked. He looked up, his eyes imploring at her. She grinned,

"That thing is a boobah. Creepy, huh?" She said, looking at the sleeping bag.

"Who wants it?" She asked. They quietly stared at each other, neither saying anything. Katie shrugged, and went to climb into bed, figuring he would get the hint. He didn't. He just sat there. As she climbed into bed, he stood finally. He began to remove his jacket, and he heard screaming. He froze, and went to close the door. He undid his belt, and took off his boots. As his pale chest was exposed to her, Katie looked away, rolling onto her side. She waited to hear the noise of a sleeping bag…but she never did. She did however feel him climb into bed with her. She rolled over,

"What're you doing?"

"Going to sleep….what did you say your name was?" He asked suddenly, looking at her. They were in the same bed and hadn't met yet.

"Katie."

"Zexion."

"Pleasure to meet you?" He didn't say anything, he just closed his eyes. She rolled back over, and she jumped as she felt a hand on her back.

How was it that she was stuck with the quiet, socially awkward guy? Really, how fair was that? She didn't even know a thing about Kingdom Hearts and now…

Katie sighed, closing her eyes like he had and attempting to lull herself to sleep despite the fact that she felt undeniably uncomfortable with this strange boy sharing the bed with her. Not to mention she could hear suspicious noises coming from her parents' bedroom…she decided that she didn't even _want_ to know what was going on behind that door.

"I smell the mixing of bodily fluids." Zexion murmured.

"Er…if you're implying that I smell, I'm sorry, I showered a few hours ago so I really shouldn't---"

"…" He turned to face her, "You smell absolutely fine, like cocoa butter."

She stared at him awkwardly, "Er…thanks?"

"I smell sex."

A small squeak escaped her parted lips, she obviously hadn't been expecting him to say something like that to her, it was just…odd! Everything about this boy was strange, granted, Katie did find him very attractive in an emo-bookworm kind of way, but the things that had come out of his mouth were just…they were peculiar.

"I'm very flattered and all Zexion, but I'm just not ready for that, I'm saving myself for marriage." She declared with a frown.

Zexion was quiet for a few minutes, his expression unreadable and blank, "That's really too bad, Katie."

They lapsed in to another awkward silence which Katie used to try and get to sleep; the sooner she was asleep the sooner she could drift away from such an uncomfortable situation as this. Zexion seemed oblivious to her discontentment and instead closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.

She was glad for that, it gave her a little more time to think about the day's events, sorting through them as best as she possibly could. Logically thinking none of this was even possible! How had fictional characters such as the Kingdom Hearts boys even made it to reality, let alone crash landing in her back yard? Which brought up another question; how the hell was she going to get that hole filled in? Her parents would be home in a few days and there was a freakin' ROCKET SHIP –gummi ship, or whatever Ash and Alex had called it—in her backyard in the center of a giant crater! How was she to explain that? It would take a truck load of soil to fill it in at least, not to mention it'd look totally obvious that something had happened there with a fresh pile of dirt in the middle of the backyard and all…

A little while later Zexion began to mumble in his sleep, okay, so maybe 'mumbling' was an understatement, he was actually being rather loud, speaking incoherent thoughts and ramblings. Katie groaned, of course the quiet boy would be an avid sleep talker! She reached her hand over to grab his hand and squeezed it gently to get his attention, only it felt a little…it didn't feel like a hand. Katie glanced over to see what exactly it was that she was grabbing. Her face heated up, turning as red as a cherry as she flipped back over on her side, facing away from him and pretending to sleep as he woke up. She definitely hadn't touched his hand, she knew what she had touched and she felt awfully dirty about it too! Hopefully he wouldn't realize that she had inadvertently groped his erect penis in his sleep and think that it was only a dream.

It took her a while to get to sleep, but once she had she was out like a light.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Then that left Alex alone with none other than Sora, Axel and Roxas, and she just couldn't contain herself when she found herself in this situation. She busted into a fit of giggles and ran back towards the stairs calling out,

"There's only one thing left to do! Let's play Kingdom Hearts! Last one to the rec room is a rotten egg!"

Utterly bewildered, the stunned trio stared at her without moving wondering what in the world she was talking about. She stopped stomping up the stairs to lean over the railing at them and continued,

"Well come on!"

"Oh boy! It's game time!" Sora played along in all seriousness, flying up the stairs, leaving the still stunned Axel and Roxas at the bottom of the stairs. They couldn't figure if it were in their best interest to stay, or to follow. So they shrugged and decided to follow; for the sake of company.

Upstairs, Alex had already unplugged Katie's Nintendo Gamecube and replaced it with her own Play Station 2 that she had conveniently brought from home, to catch up in Kingdom Hearts, of course. She handed the controller to Sora who sat cross legged on the floor, much too close to the television while she and Axel took their seats on one of the couches. Roxas sat on his own in the arm chair, claiming his own personal space. Sora didn't know right away that he was playing the role of himself, all he gathered was,

"Wow! What a cool looking kid! Who's that?"

"That's you, silly!" Alex said with a laugh that followed, "This is the video game you come from! I play it all the time."

Sora had zoned out again, becoming a button-pushing zombie with his eyes glued to the screen. With the exception of the video game music and effects, it became quiet for a moment, probably because the Nobodies that we're currently playing a video game were trying to grasp what they had just heard, then Roxas chuckled, pointing at Sora,

"He's totally playing with himself!"

At this, Axel and Alex burst into laughter, much louder than Roxas had, and Sora had yet to pay them any attention since the first time he had sat down, other than occasionally yelping and asking Alex for her help to defeat the latest Heartless, something even she at times needed help with.

"No, Sora, don't go that way! Eek! You have to drop that on them first! ...No, not that!" As she rambled senseless directions only confusing him further, Alex felt a sudden sensation of falling and screeched when the futon she and Axel had been sitting on hit the floor.

"What the hell?!" She shrieked, still shocked. She looked over to see Axel leaning over the side of it. He decided to play with the bolts on its sides, and the whole thing had come apart.

"Haha, whoops," he just laughed it off.

"Oh, Axel. You break everything you touch," Roxas shook his head. At this, Axel took up a dangerous amount of the personal space Roxas had already claimed and declared,

"That's not what you said to me the other night."

This created a very uncomfortable Roxas and a very excited Alex, and in the midst of her squealing, she picked up on some noise of a different accord from the other room, which succeeded at making _everyone_ fall quiet and uncomfortable. Alex took the initiative and began to pound on the wall and shouting as if it were routine,

"Shut the hell up, you nasty whore!"

Alex then turned back around with a giggle,

"Sorry about that!"

She was no more than blinked at by Axel and Roxas, but then she spotted Sora, still on the floor trying to suppress a large yawn and watched him curl up on the floor. Between crashing into a new world and saving a virtual one, he was exhausted. Alex was quick to grab one of the larger fluffier blankets and lay it on top of the drifting Sora, and she didn't hesitate to dive under the same one herself. She snuggled closer to him with a smile and whispered to him

"You get your rest, Sora."

He muttered something else, and with that, had fallen asleep.

Taking advantage of the situation, Axel decided to invite himself into Roxas' space once more, who squirmed,

"What?" The much smaller blonde questioned, seeming to shrink.

He didn't get a response, but he was instead picked up and thrown over Axel's shoulder, but only for a short time before he was dropped onto the other couch (the one that wasn't broken) next to the lamp shaped as a palm tree. What a strange light fixture.

"What are you doing?!" He demanded this time. Axel opened his mouth to speak, but Alex promptly shot up from off the floor, pointed at the pair, and said,

"No sex!", then doubled back to the floor and drifted back to sleep by the Keybearer.

Axel sighed and took the other blanket from the arm on the couch, a soft one that was red with a print of panda bears, and wrapped Roxas up underneath it.

"Nothing... just tucking you in. Good night, Roxas," he said, adding a kiss to the tired blonde's forehead.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Meanwhile, in the family room, Goofy and Donald were finding it hard to agree on what to do. Donald, cranky as always, just wanted to go to sleep. Goofy, however, was in a jolly mood and wanted to peruse the collection of DVDs located next to the TV so that he could decide which one to watch. Normally, the collection would have been smaller, but with Katie home, all her DVDs were now jumbled in piles next to her parents' neatly ordered DVD and CD collection. Goofy searched and searched through the piles while Donald complained bitterly about the light still being on. After a moment, Donald got up, stomped over to the light switch, and flipped it off. A moment later, Goofy flipped it back on, after realizing that "Gawrsh! I can't see in the dark!" Donald stomped over to it again and flipped it back off. Goofy said, "Oh, that's okay! I think I've found one. I dunno what it is but I'll just put it in!" There was a crash and the sound of broken glass as Goofy slipped on a DVD and broke the glass doors that encased the DVD player, VCR, and CD player. Fortunately, he managed somehow to get the DVD into the DVD player without breaking it and flipped on the TV as he returned clumsily to his couch. Donald exclaimed angrily as the TV flashed brightly, illuminating his formerly sleeping form.

"Goofy!"

Goofy grinned goofily as the movie began.

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, huh? Hmm, sounds interesting."

He watched as a pair of men trotted along on their horses and one of them stopped to pick up a coin. The man proceeded to flip the coin repeatedly while the other man watched. It always ended up on heads. Goofy's eyes followed the coin, fascinated. Donald, reluctantly watching it, grew frustrated finally with the coin flipping and yelled,

"This is stupid! Gimme that remote!"

Goofy held him off with one hand and held the remote in the other. Finally, the other man snatched the coin away. As the movie progressed, Donald struggled to ignore it and go to sleep. Unfortunately for him, Goofy was finding it hilarious and kept laughing.

"Ahyuck!"

The man who'd had the coin, whose name was evidently Rosencrantz while the other was Guildenstern (though Goofy kept getting them confused), was making animal sounds as well as other silly sounds now.

"_Awhooooooooooga_!"

Goofy laughed raucously.

Later, Rosencrantz lay in a box contemplating life. Goofy didn't understand everything of what he was saying about life and death but he followed the dialogue with interest anyway. Guildenstern turned to Rosencrantz at the end of it and said,

"_I think I'm going to kill you."_

A moment later, Rosencrantz stood behind Guildenstern trying to show him a clever paper airplane he'd made (that looked like a real airplane). Goofy giggled. After a moment, Guildenstern turned angrily and smushed the airplane. Goofy frowned.

"Well that wasn't very nice."

Then Rosencrantz tried to throw the airplane and it fell immediately. Goofy laughed.

"AHYUCK!"

Donald, unable to stand it anymore, sprang from his bed, snatched the remote from Goofy's hand, turned off the TV, and grabbed Goofy by the cuff of his shirt.

"GOOFY, I THINK I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

In the darkness, Goofy grinned a goofy smile and said,

"Hey Donald, did those two remind you of someone?"

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Alex awoke to the sounds of the television. She opened her eyes to see Sora watching a cut scene in a large room full of something Alex couldn't identify at this point. Then she heard male voices. She rolled back over, hiding her face in Sora's pants leg.

"I didn't know Axel....died." Sora said sadly. She looked up.

"He doesn't." She urged, sitting up, the blanket falling off her, and back onto her lap, exposing her tank top clad top half to Sora, who hadn't realized she looked as old as she did. She looked at the TV, and looked back at Sora, her brown eyes wide with panic.

"No! No no no no no! Axel CAN'T DIE! Who's gunna love Roxas if Axel's dead!?" Sora looked at her,

"Haven't you played this before?!" He sounded panicked as well.

"Not all the way through!" She looked around for signs of him, or Roxas and she found none.

"Where are they!?" She half shouted, Sora looked around, panicking further.

"I don't know!" He said, looking around. She screamed, and she tossed the blanket off of her legs and took off down the stairs, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was closely followed by Sora who was in a mild panic himself, though he wasn't sure why.

"AXEL'S DEAD!" Alex wailed as she stormed through the kitchen, startling Ashley and Marluxia who were eating breakfast, Zexion who was attempting to look at the paper, not that he understood much of what it was going on in it, but he did like the BC comic, it made him half smile. Alex kept running until she collided with a tall torso in the doorway leading to the den.

"Whose dead now?" Axel asked, holding her shoulders. She looked up at him with blood shot eyes.

"You are! You died!" She screamed, throwing her arms around his middle. He blinked and before he knew it, Taryn had attached herself to him too, also crying,

"Where the hell did you even come from?!" He said staring down at her.

"You can't die! You leave Roxas alone! I know he makes you feel like you have a heart and you have to hang on!" She wailed. Sora came down the stairs and attached himself to Axel as well, not saying anything. Ash got up from the table and declared,

"Group hug!"

"No!" Axel said, trying to shake the mob from him, but he couldn't. As the four smaller bodies clung to him, Riku and Roxas looked through a doorway from the den,

"What's all the racket?" Riku asked, Roxas nonchalantly spoke,

"Axel died and upset everyone." He leaned against a wall near the door, and Riku furrowed his brow,

"Sure...'cause it all makes sense now."

Axel groaned loudly, "Alright, well obviously I'm not dead or else I wouldn't be standing here, now please get off me."

Alex and Taryn both shook their heads and in unison made their voices light and airy like Ron Weasley from the Puppet Pals, "No!"

Katie was busy at the stove fixing up everyone's breakfasts when she couldn't take it anymore, they were being far too loud for it being so early in the morning. She turned around, spatula in hand with a menacing glare, "Everyone leave Axel alone or no breakfast for you!"

"Doesn't bother me, I hate pancakes!" Taryn retorted, snuggling back in to Axel's warm leather Organization XIII cloak, enjoying the enticing smell of cinnamon and smoke.

The blonde rolled her eyes, "But you like eggs and sausage so—"

"Bahaha! Eggs and sausage!" Ashley giggled, backing away from Axel and going to sit next to Marluxia at the table.

Taryn, Alex, and even Axel stifled their giggles at the sexual innuendo that Katie had unknowingly made. Roxas shook his head, but the smile twitching at the corners of his lips was evidence of his amusement. The rest of the occupants in the kitchen chose to ignore the immaturity being expressed, except for Sora, who didn't understand why everyone was snickering.

"Wha--? What'd I miss?" The spiky haired keyblade master tilted his head to the side like that of a curious puppy.

Alex immediately detached herself from Axel and squealed over Sora's cuteness, now latching on to the naïve vanquisher of darkness. Katie took that as a step up from before, but still eyed Taryn who was still attached to the red-haired pyromaniac's waist.

"Taryn…" She waved her spatula threateningly.

"Your cakes of pan are burning." The short brunette smirked, nodding her head towards the stove where the pancakes had begun to smolder and burn from being neglected for so long. Katie gasped, immediately turning back around the salvage what she could of the pancakes.

Riku arched a silver eyebrow, "Having fun over there, Taryn?"

She glanced back at him and then up at the chuckling Axel, realizing that she was the only one still clinging to him. She quickly averted her hazel eyes to the floor, blushing as red as his wild hair.

"What…is this mess on my plate?" Zexion stared down at the blob of food on his plate; it was of a strange consistency—goopy-like.

"That's grits!" Ashley supplied.

The blue-gray haired Nobody glanced over at Ash and stared at her blankly for a moment, "You and Marluxia had sex last night, I could smell it."

The entire kitchen was enveloped in silence.

Everyone looked absolutely horrified, despite the fact that they had all heard Ash and Marluxia going at it the night before. Taryn and Riku awkwardly glanced over at each other. Katie bit her lip, her face as red as a tomato. Roxas looked away. Axel snickered behind his hand, but was also disgusted at the same time. Sora didn't seem to understand at first, but then Alex whispered something in his ear and he scrunched up his nose.

"Marluxia stuck _what_ in _where_?!"

Riku laughed as realization dawned on his idiotic friend.

"I don't see how it's any of your business." Ashley shot back, regaining her composure.

Alex cocked an eyebrow, "We didn't have to have Zexion's creepy sense of smell, you both were so damn loud, you whore."

"We slammed our door closed and we could STILL hear you two." Riku crossed his arms over his chest.

Marluxia smirked, "And what were you two doing behind that closed door, hm?"

Riku looked away, Taryn blushed and bowed her head.

"Ooh! They did _something_ look how flustered they got!" Alex laughed, dancing around before pulling Taryn off to the side, "We all know what Ash and Marly did, but what about you and Riku? Did you bang him yet?"

"W-what? N-no! We just talked, that's it!"

"Riigghhtt! So! What was he like? I bet he'd be rough in bed, yeah?"

While the two girls were talking off to the side Katie broke the awkward silence by declaring that the rest of the pancakes, eggs, and sausages were done if anyone wanted any more, setting the food down on the middle of the table.

Alex and Taryn bounded back over to the table looking rather devious, both of them pulling out ornate looking sticks of wood, simultaneously pointing them at Zexion and screaming, "ERECTO!"

Katie's head was immediately filled with the memory of the night before and she hid her reddening face behind a veil of her hair.

Sora glanced away from the girls and he looked at Katie.

"You okay? You look a little red." Sora asked. Her head snapped up, and she shook her head,

"I'm fine!" She said. Her eyes flew to Zexion as he spoke,

"Are you feeling weird because we slept together?" He asked nonchalantly. Everyone's attention just went to him.

"You did what?! No one can give me grief if KATIE is sleeping with strange men she feels no attachment to. At least I'm beyond that!" Ash declared, slamming her tea down on the table. Alex rolled her eyes,

"Because I'm sure Marly here feels a lot towards you since he has NO HEART, and will betray people. Such a trustworthy guy there Ash." She said, over her drink.

"Oh Miss Axel Obsessor, you a fine one to talk. He doesn't have a heart either." She pointed out, Alex shot back,

"That may be, but he knows who's worth trusting." She said, motioning towards Roxas and Sora. Ash scoffed and laid her head on Marluxia's shoulder and began to whisper things in his ear that Taryn and Alex both assumed were dirty.

"I didn't SLEEP with him, he was in my bed! That's all!" Katie shouted finally. Everyone looked at her,

"Okay Katie." Taryn said with a giggle. Katie groaned, and the meal progressed quietly from there.

Later in the day, Katie decided to break out a movie. The group decided on Little Mermaid, and everyone was entrapped with the songs, Sora even sang along with a few. Half way through the movie, Taryn drifted off, leaning on Riku. He looked down at her, and he saw straight down her shirt, he looked around at the singing room members, or Ash and Marly who were sucking face, or Zexion who was still trying to make sense of the literature from this world and reading something called Calvin and Hobbs now. So, he glanced, and he slid his arm around her shoulders, she snuggled into him, and he slowly let his hand slide down her shirt and run across the top of her breasts. He ran his hand down into the cup and he ran his fingers over her, beginning to feel her up as discreetly as he could while his eyes never leaving the tv.

Taryn let out a quiet moan in her sleep, her hands subconsciously clutching tightly to his white vest-jacket, Riku glanced down at her and smirked, liking the reaction he was getting from her, awake or not, she enjoyed his touch.

Nearly everyone in the room turned to glare at Ashley and Marluxia, who were still aggressively sucking each other's faces off. Riku positioned himself so that no one else could see that his hand was currently roaming over Taryn's breasts, narrowing his eyes accusingly at the pair making out, mimicking the stares of the rest of the room.

"Really? The song says to 'Kiss the Girl' but really…you're eating her fucking face off!" Axel was rather irritable, he had been thoroughly enjoying the movie only for it to have been interrupted by moans coming from the traitor and his girl.

Ashley pulled apart from the pink haired man quickly, matching the room's glare with her own, "Shut the hell up, that wasn't even me!"

"Gawrsh guys, do you think she's tellin' the truth?" Goofy tilted his head to the side, not even bothering to look back at Ash from his embarrassment at the situation.

"I've met Ariel, ya'know!" Sora bragged to Alex who listened to him with rapt attention, staring starry-eyed at the handsome hero. She may not have liked the way the red-haired mermaid interacted with the keyblade master, but she'd never tire of listening to him and the stories he told. It was one thing to play the game but to hear of his adventures first hand was something else, it was exciting! The way Sora's face lit up when he described the battles he'd fought, the people he'd met, and the worlds he'd ventured to!

"Shh quiet, this is my favorite part!" Katie shushed everyone, ironic in the fact that she always blabbered on loudly during every movie she watched. The Kingdom Hearts boys had already found this out during the first half of the movie where Katie had provided sound effects and imitations of the characters in the movie.

Once everyone's attention had been glued back to the television Riku glanced down at the sleeping girl, massaging her tenderly, watching her peaceful expression change to a more….he wasn't quite sure how to describe it; but he enjoyed seeing her make that face that she made every time he sped up his fingers.

"Ri….ku…"

He panicked, thinking that she had woken up, but her posture clearly said otherwise. Taryn was still sleeping.

"Don't…don't leave…" She looked strained, as if she were having a nightmare.

Riku withdrew his hand and leaned down, brushing hair out of her face and whispering, "I'm still here, I'm not going anywhere." Before placing a tender kiss on her pale pink lips, wishing that he could kiss her while she was awake.

Katie frowned and tried hard to focus on the movie, even though she wasn't really that fond of it. King Triton had always upset her when she was little and she'd never really gotten past her memories of distaste for the movie from when she was little. She'd only put it on cause everyone had wanted her too. Focusing on it was much better than watching Ash and Marluxia (that was his name, yes? Ash just called him Marly) suck each others' faces off or watching Riku subtly stroking Taryn sexually, apparently convinced that no one had noticed. She was tempted to follow Zexion's example and get a book. She loved Calvin and Hobbes, which was what he was currently reading. She hoped he enjoyed it. She was still trying to get used to the idea that several characters from a video game she knew little about were crowded into her family room, along with her best friends. She was all nerves right now, stressing about how to handle the situation. Her parents would be home in a few days. Not only was there a huge hole in her backyard now, but her house was a complete mess. Food was strewn about, dishes had piled up...she got up quietly and went into the kitchen to work on those. Cleaning the kitchen would at least get her away from the constant face-sucking and sensual stroking. Several of her dad's ties were ruined, as well as a nice set of sheets in her parents' bedroom (how the hell was she supposed to explain that?!) and Goofy had managed to break the glass doors to the cabinet holding the DVD player, as well as her Rosencrantz and Guildenstern DVD (though, actually, she was convinced that was Donald's fault). Her friends might never be able to come over again if her parents found the house in such a state! She hadn't been able to take a shower yet this morning either because the bazillion people in her house had taken over both showers in the house and she'd had to cook breakfast.

As she worked on cleaning the dishes, she heard a shout from the family room.

"Karl, can you bring in some more chips? Sora just finished these."

"Hey, what happened to all the extra sound effects and jokes? I kinda liked those!"

Alex and Sora. Alex seemed to really have a thing for him. She had to admit, he was cute in a way. Kind of like a little kid, even though from what Alex had told her about him he'd had to deal with a lot of grown up responsibilities in the game. She knew Alex really cared about him. Video game character or not, he was real now. Katie thought that was sweet. She groaned at Sora's comment, thinking about her horrible tendency to talk through movies. It was nice to know someone besides herself had enjoyed them for a change. She wished she didn't have so much trouble keeping her mouth shut during films. Make an effort, Katie, make an effort! She walked over to the pantry and opened it up. Not much in the way of snacks left. She grabbed some Pringles and walked into the family room, handing them to Alex. She needed to go shopping, since they'd cleaned out a fair amount of the food. Mom and Dad hadn't left them too many snacks or anything like that, since they'd only expected there to be four girls in the house for a couple of weeks.

As she went back to washing the dishes, Zexion stepped inside, holding the Calvin and Hobbes book.

"This is really fun stuff actually. Different though. I've never read a book like this, mainly made up of pictures with text to go with it. Do you have any more?"

Wow. He'd read that fast. She gestured upstairs.

"If you go up to my room, there should be a whole pile of them sitting on the floor that I brought home from college. They're not all like Calvin and Hobbes though. Some of them are funny but a lot of them are kind of dark and serious. Feel free to take a look at the bookshelf in my room and the one in the office too. The office is the room to the right of my room...the one Taryn and Riku aren't staying in."

He thanked her and headed upstairs, fiddling with the bands holding the doors shut. She walked over and undid them for him.

"Sorry, those are for our cats. To keep them from going upstairs. Just make sure to put the band on the other side of the door back over the knobs after I shut the door, okay?"

He nodded and quietly slipped through the doors. She shut them and heard him fix the band, then step lightly up the stairs. She thought of the poor cats. They were terrified. Poor Scraps seemed quite taken aback by all these people, but at least she was still out in the open at times. Friendly had almost completely disappeared. Katie had been forced to spend a lot of time with her in order to get her to eat any food. That had only been because everyone was still asleep at the time that Katie had gotten up. She'd woken up around 4, troubled by all the nonsense that had occurred the previous night. What was she going to do about all this craziness?

"Who wants to play Quelf?!" Alex screamed. All the girls jumped up.

"ME!" They all screamed in unison. She stood up from Sora, who she hadn't noticed had intertwined their fingers. He looked up at her confused as she started to run. She pulled his hand,

"Wanna come?" She asked. He smiled, and he pushed himself up off the floor and took off with her,

"Everyone's pairing off." Roxas mused, looking at Riku and Taryn. Riku looked at him, and pulled Taryn closer, looking back at the TV. Axel started to speak when the other two came bounding back into the room, tossing a box to the floor. Alex set up the game as the movie ended. She hummed along with the songs, and pushed her short hair behind her ear, Sora watched her, and he looked back at the tv, so he wouldn't stare.

The rules were simple, one moved a cardboard piece around a colorful board. The colors led to cards, and each card had something randomly obscure on it one had to do. The first to draw was Riku, who had to find a body of water bigger then a bath tub or a puddle to jump in fully clothed. He chose the neighbor's pool. All stood outside and watched him as he hoped the fence with agility and made a belly flop off the driving board. Next, was Axel, who was sent running down the street in nothing but his boxers, screaming,

"THE BRITISH ARE COMING!" Everyone was clutching their sides with laughter as he came back up the stairs, pulling his coat back on. The game went on from there with Alex licking a battery, Marluxia and Sora swapping pants and then Roxas eating candy from Taryn's pants. Ash drew a card that was stated that when anyone's phone went off or we heard a door the entire group had to stand up and shout,

"PIZZA PARTY!" which continued for most of the night whenever a phone was heard. Taryn had to go outside into the same neighbor's yard and scrub herself in the bird bath while chirping like a bird. Katie had to strip for Donald, though Zexion didn't seem to mind the view either, though he did mind having to catch one of the cats and lick them. Donald had to feed Goofy pudding from behind his back and Sora had to belly dance. He was surprisingly good at it. She sort of felt bad for trashing the house, but she didn't really know what to do about it. If they were here now...they could help clean, or something bad could be happening, but she didn't wanna think that. She stood up, and she looked back as someone stood with her. Before she could speak to Sora, the phone went off and all automatically jumped up and screamed,

"PIZZA PARTY!" Even though no one was playing anymore. Katie picked up the phone, and she froze,

"Oh..Hi Mom..."

"Hi sweety! How's everything going?" asked Mom.

Katie hastily walked away from the awkward, giggling group of people cramped into her family room and headed for the rec room stairs.

"Oh...it's going alright."

"Yeah? You don't sound so sure."

Her mom laughed a little nervously.

"Well, see, the thing is...I need your advice on something."

"Yeah?"

"Well, some big...rock thing landed in our backyard last night kind of randomly. It was like...a meteorite."

"Are you serious?!"

"Yeah...so, I was wondering what to do about that. Should I call someone about getting it out of here?"

"I...oh goodness...well...No, go ahead and just leave it there. We'll take care of it when we get back. Anything else the matter?"

Katie thought of all the people and all the other problems in the house.

"Err...well, no, I guess not. Things are...a little messy in the house right now but that's okay, I-we'll take care of it. Also...uhhhh...well, I had an accident happen yesterday."

"What was that?"

"I...accidentally tripped and fell into the glass doors of the cabinet thing that we have under the TV...I broke them. I'm really sorry. Everything else was okay though."

"Oh gosh, Kate! Uhhh....I, I guess we'll have to call someone about that too when we get home."

"I'm REALLY sorry, Mom."

"I know, hon. It's just...you have to be more careful, okay?"

"Okay, Mom. I promise."

She flinched as she heard the sound of something else breaking in the background and heard Goofy yelp.

"Oh gawrrrsh!!!"

"What was that?" her mom asked.

"Err, I don't know. I think maybe the guys are watching some TV. Sounded like...uh..Disney maybe? I thought I heard Goofy."

"Oh. Well okay. You sound kind of upset, you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. It's just, y'know, I feel bad about breaking the glass doors and, there's a meteorite in our backyard."

"Well, don't worry about it too much, Kate. It'll be okay. Well, I was just calling to let you know we're going to be later getting home actually. At least, assuming you don't mind. We're thinking we might stay a couple more weeks here, but only if it's okay with you. I don't want to make things hard on you if that's inconvenient. We don't mind coming home at the original time to be with you if you want us to."

"I...no, that's okay, Mom. Really. You guys go ahead and enjoy your time there. We're having a really nice time here. You don't mind if everyone stays here a bit longer while you're gone though, do you?"

"Weeeelll, I don't know, Kate. Are you sure you girls can keep a good handle on things that long?"

She laughed.

"After all, from what you said, it sounds like there's already a bit of cleaning to do. We don't want to come home to a house that looks like a tornado hit it."

Katie forced herself to laugh.

"Oh no, Mom. It'll be fine. Like I said, we'll straighten it up and it'll be fine."

Just then, Alex, Taryn, and Sora came screaming in the hallway next to her.

"Oh my god, he's on fire!"

"Ha ha, what an idiot!"

"I can't believe it! Someone get a wet towel!"

Katie felt herself stiffen and imagined herself with her hair standing on end.

"Kate, what was that?"

"Err, they're playing a game, Mom. No one's actually on fire. It's fine."

"Are you sure?"

She heard them run back to the kitchen.

"Ha ha, hold still, Donald!"

She could hear Donald shouting and banging stuff around in the kitchen. _Oh god have mercy_, she thought.

"Yeah, Mom. Everything's fine, really. I should probably go though. We kind of went through our snacks fast this week and now I have to go shopping. Plus I've got laundry to do too. I hope you guys have a good time."

"Okay, Kate. If you're sure it's alright for us to be gone a little longer..."

"It's fine. Really, Mom. Have a great time. I'll look forward to seeing you in...three weeks now, I guess?"

"Yep. That'd be about right."

"Alright. I'll talk to you later. Love you."

"Love you, Kate. And don't worry about the meteorite (or whatever it is) and the glass doors. We'll get them taken care of. It'll be fine."

"Thanks Mom. Bye."

"Bye, hon."

_Maybe they could take care of that, but what about everything else?!_ Katie flung herself from the stairs and ran down into the kitchen.

"OH FUCK!"

The kitchen was an absolute mess. No, that was an understatement. It looked as if a tempest had blown through, followed by an angry tornado and a pack of hungry sumo-wrestlers, and then set aflame. Katie could see scorch marks on the countertops and the floor where Donald had apparently been in his flaming stupor. Dirty dishes that had once been piled in the sink now lay strewn across the floor, drawers were opened, utensils scattered all over the place….Katie felt as if her heart had stopped.

"Oh God, smite me now." She groaned, she knew that in the end she'd be the one to clean everything up, no matter what the others said they'd coincidentally forget to help.

"Such foul language coming from such a pretty girl." Axel leaned against the doorframe connecting the living room and the kitchen. His bright green eyes surveyed the kitchen and he made a face of disgust, "What the hell happened here?"

"That's exactly what I'd like to know." Katie didn't get angry very often, she was more or less a pacifier, but the destruction of her house had her at the end of her rope, she was pissed off and stressed out. She marched out in to the living room, brushing past the flame-haired man, and crossing her arms over her chest, eyeing the group on the floor with contempt.

Taryn and Alex we on their backs giggling at a very singed looking Donald Duck, said feathered mage wasn't looking quite as amused as the two girls were. In fact, he seemed about as angry as Katie was, but that went without saying as he had just been on fire.

"What the hell happened?! I was just on the phone with my parents, do you know how bad that sounded when you guys ran into the kitchen screaming about fire and then all the noise you made in there? Not to mention the mess you created, I hope you know that YOU'RE cleaning that because I refuse to!" The blonde screeched, her face red from anger.

Everyone looked absolutely terrified by her sudden outburst, especially Ash, Taryn, and Alex, they'd never seen Katie so angry before and it was a very horrifying sight to behold!

"Well gawrsh, I feel bad for wreckin' yer house Miss Katie, me an' Donald will help clean up!" Goofy scratched abashedly at the back of his head, volunteering himself and his friend who looked positively livid at having been unwillingly roped in to doing something.

Katie's blue eyes softened on the Disney characters, "You guys don't have to…that rant was mainly directed at those two." She nodded her head to a cowering Alex and Taryn, Ash had crawled back over to Marluxia after hearing that Katie wasn't mad at her.

"No no, it's not a problem at all! We'll all help since we did collectively make this mess." Sora grinned widely.

And so everyone set to work, splitting in to small groups and tackling the messy house together. Remarkably it didn't take as long as expected with everyone working together for the common goal of getting the house spic and span! It did take about an hour and a half before the entire house was clean, and by then everyone's stomachs were growling with hunger.

"I'm hungry, what's for dinner?" Ashley asked casually, opening up the fridge to inspect its contents; there was a bottle of soda that only had about a teaspoon of liquid left, and a couple oranges.

Katie frowned, hungry too, "Well, that's the problem; there's nothing really here so we're going to have to go shopping for more food."

"We can't exactly bring everyone with us dressed as they are…" Alex stroked her chin in concentration, "I know! Come with me!"

The tiny brunette grabbed on to Sora's hand, motioning for Taryn, Ash and the rest of the boys to follow, leaving Katie in the kitchen with Donald and Goofy.

Katie shrugged. They really didn't have to ALL come with her. Really, she could do the shopping by herself if they'd just tell her what they needed. She knew Taryn loved car rides but aside from her, she wasn't sure how everyone else would feel about strolling around Publix. She wasn't sure how Publix would feel about it either. Besides, how were they all going to fit in her car anyway? She supposed they had Alex's car too at least. Whatever. Her rage had subsided since they'd actually all pitched in to clean the house. It looked much better now and she felt a bit better. She was still a bit upset and her stress was definitely still higher than usual, but she was much more back to her normal, relatively laid-back self. She convinced herself they'd figure things out with time and reminded herself this was hardly the end of the world. At least she hoped not, though the presence of the video game characters made her somewhat suspicious they were all wrapped up in something bigger than your usual messed up household. She sat at the kitchen table making a list of things she needed to replace. She quickly came to the conclusion that they had better head to the Wal-Mart in TR instead of Publix.

Alex bound about upstairs, looking through Katie's father's cloths. She found some jeans that could have fit on some of the males...like Axel if he's legs weren't so damn long! She turned back and forth, and she looked at Taryn,

"Go get our suit cases from the other upstairs." Taryn nodded and ran off. Sora looked at her with a strange look, and Axel was nearly knocked over as he came up the stairs, closely followed by Riku and Roxas. Ash dragged Marly up there too, and they all crowded in the hallway. Alex led them into the guest room where Taryn and Riku had spent the night, figuring it was more sanitary then the Clarke's room, thank you Ashley. She started with Axel, pushing him down on the bed, and he looked at her with a glance.

"What're you doing?"

"We're going to Wal-mart and you can't go anywhere looking like you do, you look like a cult member." He raised his eyebrows, but before he could say anything, she had unzipped his jacket and was pulling it off of him. He blinked and he looked like he, for once in his existence, felt a bit awkward. Once Taryn got back, Alex fished through her stuff and couldn't find anything. She then pulled something out of Ash's stuff that Taryn had also brought. She tossed it at Axel's face and he slide the shirt over his head. As he looked down, he rose an eyebrow,

"Whose this?" He asked about a red headed kid in some sort of uniform.

"That's Ron Weasley from Harry Potter." Alex said, moving on through the bags. Riku was next, and he was dressed by Taryn. He was given a shirt that said, "My Crabs Can Beat Up Your Crabs." Most of the groups' pants were fine, but shirts were running thinner and thinner. Roxas was given a pink owl shirt from Ash, Sora wore a very feminine shirt he pulled from Alex's bag with "I Intercourse" written on it in large letters, though on his hip it said, "PA", not that he understood that. Marluxia wore a shirt with Halloweentown Sora on it, and he put a fuzzy vest of Ashley's over the top of it so no one could see anything, and Zexion was brought a shirt with a group of men on it, and it said NSYNC across it. He looked at them like they were crazy, but he changed regardless.

So, Axel, Roxas, Marluxia and Ashley crawled into the majorly overcrowded backseat of Alex's car while Sora rode shot gun. Zexion, Taryn, Katie and Riku were in the other car, while Donald and Goofy stayed behind. As they drove down the road, Sora continued to push button after button in the car. After pushing a little silver button on the dash, music started, loudly, and scared everyone, including Alex who swerved,

"_IT'S RAINING MEN, HALLELUJAH! IT'S RAINING MEN! AMEN!"_ The music sang. Sora's eyes lit up, and he leaned over as he swayed with the music. He leaned on the armrest, opening his window by mistake, and panicked a bit, closing his shirt in the window.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Meanwhile, those riding in Katie's car were more subdued in behavior than the others, with the exception of Taryn who had her window rolled down and was sticking her head out of it similar to that of a dog.

Riku wasn't too excited about being stuck in the back seat with a former member of Organization 13, in his mind none of them were good news, ESPECIALLY those who had been at Castle Oblivion (namely Marluxia, Axel, and Zexion), the only problem he had with Roxas was that he had been beaten by him that time at Memory's Skyscraper. He had a feeling that Roxas held the same discontent towards him as well.

"Oh, let's put on some music, yeah?" Taryn brought her head back in to the car, he hair windblown all over the place. She began to dig through her purse and pulled out a mixed tape, taking it from its case and sticking it into the car's cd player.

"What's on that?" Katie eyed her friend warily, knowing that she was known for listening to strange music.

"A classic that everyone loves!" The brunette grinned, flipping to track 7 and giggling like a maniac.

Zexion gave off the air of a stereotypical emo kid, leaning up against the window behind the driver's seat, one leg planted firmly on the floor of the car while the other one was pulled up to his chest with an arm draped casually over it. His other elbow rested against the window with his face resting in the palm of his hand boredly. He didn't look too happy, his slate-grey eyes scanning over the surroundings that quickly passed by the window, occasionally glancing up at the sky where clouds were gathering quickly. A storm was on its way.

"_Chocolate rain_!" The deep voice burst through Katie's speakers and both girls instantly fell into fits of giggles.

Taryn sang along with the cd, "Some stay dry while others feel the pain! Chocolate rain!"

Riku arched a silver eyebrow at the girl dancing around in the seat infront of him, his lips twitched at the corners in amusement.

"Of course you'd have this on a cd." Katie laughed, "I thought you had forgotten about this song, we haven't heard you try to sing it in months!"

"Hahaha! You thought you were safe….but you're nottt!" Taryn giggled maniacally.

Katie shuddered, "That was actually really creepy, please don't do that again."

"What can I say, I've got a good evil laugh, hehe."

"I'll say." The blonde smirked, focusing on her driving more now than her friend in the next seat over.

The drive didn't take too long, much to the annoyance of Taryn, who enjoyed long car rides. Katie drove around the parking lot to find a parking spot closer to the front of the store for a few minutes before settling on one by the cart return. The four young adults jumped out of the car, slamming the doors shut while Katie locked it.

"Where to first? I say we should go get the icecream!" Taryn grinned.

Katie rolled her eyes, "If you get the icecream first then it'll melt during the time it takes for us to get the rest of the things we're buying."

"Well aren't you the bright one." Riku smirked down at the red-brown haired girl who pouted up at him.

"Shut up." She glanced away, crossing her arms over her chest while trailing behind Katie and Zexion who were already across the parking lot and closer to the entrance of the store, "Hey, wait up! Short legs here!"

Riku chuckled, easily catching up to her with about 3 long strides, "I never noticed before, but you really ARE short. What're you, like 4 foot 2?" he teased.

Taryn huffed, taking offense at the crack on her height, "No! For your information I'm 5 foot 2, genius."

"C'mon you two! I don't want to be here all day, so stay close!" Katie called out to them from the other side of the automatic sliding doors.

Once inside Katie and Zexion went to look at the meat while Taryn and Riku wandered off towards the fruits and vegetables.

Katie glanced around her, frowning, "Now, where did those two get off to? I thought I told them to stay here with us…"

Zexion lifted his head up, "They're still close, they're scents are strong over by the produce."

"Er…thanks."

He seemed nice enough, Katie decided, just the fact that his strange ability creeped her out a bit. You couldn't get anything by him; Zexion was on top of the game. She nervously ran a hand through her long blonde hair, sidling up next to the refrigerated case that the meat was stored in, deciding that they'd make baked ziti for dinner; Taryn had offered to help her seeing as she had never made that particular dish before.

Riku's turquoise eyes followed her as she bounced about the produce isle excitedly, unable to decide what types of fruit she wanted. He smiled as she stopped infront of the more exotic fruits, a small giggle escaping from her parted lips.

"I don't care if the others don't like star fruit, we're totally getting some!" She declared to herself, picking up a couple of the oddly shaped yellow fruits.

"Star fruit?" He asked curiously, coming to stand next to her.

She jumped, startled, and a light tinge of pink dusted over her cheeks.

"I..er, yeah." She picked up one of the fruits, "You see, I was always fascinated by the legend of the Paopu fruit from the game and when Star Fruit are cut they're in the shape of stars and look exactly like Paopu fruit so…I like to get them and pretend…" she looked away, far too embarrassed.

The silver haired boy wrapped an arm around her waist while using the other to gently lift her chin so that she was staring him in the eyes, "You like to pretend what?"

"Nothing, it's silly." She laughed nervously, averting her gaze, that's when something out of the ordinary caught her attention. Slithering across the floor she could have sworn that she saw a Shadow heartless, but it was gone so quick that she chocked it up to paranoid nerves due to the extreme closeness of Riku.

Katie couldn't find the type of hamburger meat that Taryn had recommended for the ziti and turned around, her eyes scanning the isles for an employee. Her bright blue eyes landed on a dark figure wearing a blue vest and she smiled to herself, walking over to the being. Suddenly Zexion tensed, his eyes narrowed and he reached out and grabbed on to her wrist.

"Don't."

"What? I'm just going to ask that worker if they have something that I need for dinner tonight." She was baffled as to why he was restraining her, his grip tightened and he pulled her back.

"That's no worker." He replied vaguely.

The lights began to flicker on and off.

"Dangerous things are about to happen, I need you to stay close by me, alright?" Zexion's tone held an air of urgency to it that Katie didn't dare object to.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Sora and Alex walked slowly through the isles. She was supposed to be looking for food, but they had gotten side tracked, and started to just talk and get to know each other a bit more. As they walked, he shyly reached out and intertwined their fingers. She blushed lightly, and she went closer to him as she was pulled. He looked around and spoke,

"Is there anything this store doesn't have?!"

"American workers." Alex commented mildly racistly. He laughed lightly, though she was sure he didn't get the extent of the joke. She looked at a worker. He didn't look like anyone she'd ever seen before. He was very round, and he had a little tiny head and piercing yellow eyes. His little blue vest hardly covered his shoulders. He looked at her and he began to move towards them. She was prepared to tell him they needed no help, but it registered with Sora faster than it did with her.

"Heartless!" He cried, pulling her away, running towards the end of the isle, where they ran into Axel and Roxas, who seemed to have the same idea they did. They all ran and eventually caught up with the group near the frozen foods where Zexion was fighting off some of them, he was soon joined by the other males who made a circle protecting the girls. Katie was in shock, Ash was watching Marluxia's ass, Taryn was panicking and Alex was wondering what worlds they would end up in. Sora looked over his shoulder and he saw them moving around lightly, and he turned around swiftly as a Heartless crawled into the center of them.

"We have to get out of here!" He said, as they all fled towards the door. They split and piled into the cars, and floored it towards home. The roads were clear, and it was eerie. As they reached the house, Donald and Goofy could be heard in the back yard, fighting stuff off. They all climbed abroad the Gummi ship and, despite the damage, took off without much trouble.

"I think I left the computer on!" Katie cried as they left, though Zexion held her still,

"When the heartless are done with your world, that won't matter anymore. Nothing will."


	2. Chapter 2

Due to limited seating in the Gummi Ship everyone was forced to either double up and sit on each other's laps or to sit on the floor and hold on tight. Sora was behind the wheel so there were a lot of jerky motions, spins, and upside-down loops, causing everyone to nearly toss their cookies onto the ship's floor.

Riku held on to Taryn tightly, pulling her closer to him as if to shield her from Sora's atrocious driving. He was also afraid that she'd somehow fall out of his lap from his best friend's irresponsible driving and hit her head on something.

"Didn't we learn our lesson the last time Sora drove? Whose brilliant idea was it to let him behind the wheel again?" He groaned in agitation as said keyblade master made another loop-de-loop, making Riku (and nearly everyone aboard the ship) feel nauseous.

"I don't like this ride very much!" Katie moaned, clutching her stomach as the urge to vomit surged through her. She swallowed it, despite how disgusting it was, and buried her face in to Zexion's shirt. She didn't feel even remotely embarrassed as she was more of less trying to pretend as if she were somewhere else and that maybe if she did that this trip would end quicker.

Ashley clung to Marluxia, not because she was scared (though she did admit to being a little frightened), but because he smelled absolutely ravishing; that was one thing she loved about him, his earthy scent.

"Wow, Sora really IS a terrible driver…" Alex grinned, gushing over the cute brunette who was steering the ship. She was currently sitting in Axel's lap, she had wanted to sit up front with Sora himself but Donald had refused, saying that he needed to sit next to the Keyblade Master so that he could navigate for them. Stupid duck.

"This is fun!" Taryn squealed, bouncing up and down while forgetting that she was sitting on Riku's lap.

"You're ENJOYING this?" Roxas asked incredulously, eyeing her as if she were crazy while simultaneously hugging himself to try and alleviate the queasy feeling burning in his stomach.

She tilted her head, "How can you not like this? He's your Other afterall, I'm sure if you were the one behind the wheel you'd be just as fun as Sora is."

Axel chuckled, "Roxas just so happens to be the more intelligent half of Sora, if he were behind the wheel then we'd be having a nice ride."

"Land ho!" Sora giggled, having missed the entire conversation that had gone on in the seats behind him.

Taryn straightened up excitedly, "Is it a place called Cocomo? You should get there fast so we can take it slow!"

Sora didn't know what and where Cocomo was, but he did take her suggestion of getting there quickly, pressing down on the pedal and speeding off towards the world coming up on the horizon. They began to experience a bit of turbulence, everyone got so jostled around that they lost consciousness before their crash landing on the world that Sora had taken them to.

The ship halted, or attempted to halt closer to the world. The passengers were tosseled about more, and the ship spun out a bit.

"I'm never riding with Sora again!" Katie screamed as they all slammed into the floor. Zexion landed on top of her, and the air was knocked out of her. She looked up at him, and he wrapped his arms around her back, lifting her back into his lap as they pulled themselves up, trying to get their footing, when the ship lurched again, and the door swung open. As everyone tried to get away from it, Roxas lost his balance and fell out of the door,

"ROXAS!" Axel screamed, flying towards the door after him, falling out too, Alex clinging to his broad shoulders. She screamed as they fell, and she ship kept going in the sky above them. She flipped over Axel's shoulders and landed on something fuzzy beneath her. She _oofed_, and she looked down, and she assumed she'd just landed on Roxas, but she screamed when she was lying on a lion.

"Please don't eat me!" She said, scrambling off of him, only to lose her footing again, and fall. She looked down; she no longer had hands, but paws. Her eyes widened and she looked back at the lion, and he had bright blue eyes. She blinked,

"Roxas?" She asked him, her head cocked to the side.

"Yes?" He asked her. She blinked again.

"This is weird...OH MY GOD WE'RE IN THE PRIDE LANDS! THIS IS SO EXCITING! ...Where's Axel?" She wondered, looking up at Roxas who appeared to be an adolescent lion. He looked around, and he started to speak when she was picked up by the nape of her neck, and left dangling from a larger animal's mouth. She looked up to see a pale bodied lion with a flaming red mane and emerald eyes holding her.

"I saw the ship go that way, I'm guessing we'll find everyone else if we head that way." Axel said through a mouthful of neck. They nodded, and he kept hold of her, they would move faster that way.

As the ship hurdled through the Pride Lands, Ashley, Zexion, Katie and Marluxia were tossed from the ship somewhere along the way, and Sora was finally able to stop the ship. It was almost as though he didn't know he'd lost any passengers until he turned around. The remaining passengers exited the ship, and Taryn looked up to see a large silver lion standing above her. She turned around in wild circles,

"We're in the Pridelands!" She called spinning more. She spun too fast and tripped over her own feet, landing on the large paws belonging to Riku. She looked up with a goofy smile, and he rolled his eyes.

"We need to find everyone else." Riku said, pushing Taryn up a little bit. She got her footing slowly and she and the others set off, Donald flying above and Goofy spinning in his new found shell. He nearly ran over Taryn, who was a little lion cub, even smaller then Sora, who seemed thrilled he'd grown since his last visit here. Riku lifted her and they made their way off, not wanting anyone to get too far away.

From a distance away they could hear angry shouts coming from, as of yet, unseen forces,

"I don't trust you!" Axel roared towards Marluxia,

"You act like you've never done anything in the past!" He snapped back, his long bird legs lashing out at the lion before him. Roxas, Katie, Zexion and Alex stood off to the side, two lions (Roxas and Alex), a warthog (Zexion) and a meercat (Katie), and then another bird, a small Kiwi like bird (Ashley). Marluxia was more of an emu, and he spat dangerously at Axel who was an on edge full grown lion.

"Traitor!" They screamed at each other, lashing out towards each other. As Sora, Riku and others came up it was apparent all in the group were going to have to choose sides. Axel stood to one side, and Marluxia stood on the other. Roxas was the first to cross the group and join Axel's side. Ashley was the first of the females to move, and to no one's shock, she moved towards Marluxia. Sora looked at the group behind him, and his face held a torn expression. It was apparently he didn't like fighting, but he knew what side he felt was in the right, and he moved after Roxas, and in turn, Alex moved after him, followed by Riku, who placed Taryn down, only to have her double back and bound after him at his heels. Zexion looked up at Katie and she looked down at him,

"I'll go with them, I won't leave Ash alone." She said to him and to her friends on the other side. Alex and Taryn would have argued, but it was only fair. They all nodded to each other, and it was understood, they would see each other again.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

After Marluxia's group had disappeared out of sight the remaining few sat down and had begun to plan out their next move.

"Well, we're obviously meant to be here." Sora mused, "The path to this world wouldn't have opened up unless our help was needed, I say we go find Simba, I'm sure he'll know what's up!"

Taryn jumped up and down excitedly, twirling around and chasing after her tail. She had always wondered why her dog back home had done it and now that she had a tail she was finally able to find out! It actually was fun, just like sticking your head out the window of a moving car—exhilarating!

"What the hell are you doing Taryn?" Alex laughed, watching her friend in amusement.

"We're going to meet Simba! Holy crap, this is the most amazing thing ever!" The abnormally small lion cub squealed, Lion King was her absolute favorite movie of all time.

Axel laughed, his large red-mane shaking from the vibration, "Aww, does someone have a little crush on King Simba?"

"Ew! No!" Taryn blanched, "This just so happens to be my favorite Disney movie ever!"

"Gawrsh, the sun's a settin' we should get a move on!" Goofy pointed his nose towards the sky, as he couldn't lift up his stubby tortoise legs very easily without toppling over himself from the weight of his body.

"Goofy's right, let's go!" Sora grinned, bounding off in the direction of where he thought pride rock was.

After about an hour of wandering underneath the moonlight Alex yawned, laying down on top of Axel's back where she had been riding. Sora glanced up at her and frowned, "Tired, Alex?"

She nodded her head.

"Alright, I guess we can stop here and sleep for the night, guys."

"Aww, but I'm wide awake, I wanna play some more!" Taryn whined, weaving in and out of Riku's long front legs.

Roxas laughed, "That's because you slept half the day before we went to the store earlier, you're probably still rested from that."

"How about we go for a walk?" Riku suggested, that way hopefully she'd get tired out from the walk and want to come back and sleep like everyone else. Taryn nodded eagerly, bouncing off in no particular direction without waiting to see whether Riku was coming or not.

The two of them walked side-by-side in silence, Riku taking small strides so that she wouldn't have to strain herself too much by trying to catch up with him and his long legs. They found themselves in a rocky area of the savannah, it was a bit darker here than where they had been earlier, putting Riku on edge. A low rumble set him on high alert, jumping back so that he was standing over Taryn protectively, his turquoise eyes narrowed at the strange rocky formation before him.

"What's going on, Riku?"

"Shh, something's over there."

A large male lion sauntered out, mirroring Riku's protective stance by standing in front of a very pretty looking tan colored lioness who watched the scene with a confused expression.

"Who're you?" The other lion growled, eyes narrowed.

Taryn peeked out from around Riku's legs, noticing the scar on the other lion's face and nearly melting when she heard him speak, "It's Kovu! It's Kovu and Kiara!"

Alex rolled on her back as she slept, taking a tumble off of Axel. Before she had time to scream, she landed on Sora. They both rolled a few feet away, and she looked up at him, through the chains of the crown necklace he wore. She smiled sheepishly,

"Whoops." She said with a giggled whisper. He smiled slightly, as much as one could as a lion, and he pulled her up. They looked around, and noticed Riku and Taryn hadn't returned yet. He saw paw prints he assumed were Riku's, and he motioned for her to follow them. As they got away from the sleeping group, she spoke,

"Sorry I woke you." She said with a smile. He shook his head,

"I wasn't sleeping really." He said, looking at the ground, stopping their walk.

"What were you doing?" She asked turning around and cocking her head to the side. He looked at her, and smiled sadly,

"Thinking about home...and feeling a bit guilty for not missing it like I usually do...I just...I dunno, haven't thought about the island or Kairi or anything recently I've been having so much fun with you...and your friends!" He quickly covered there at the end, she smiled and moved closer, sitting next to him, nudging him gently and purring lightly,

"I've had a lot of fun with you too, Sora." She said. He felt his face heat up, and he leaned down and he nudged her back, scooting closer as they were interrupted by speaking getting closer to them.

"Kovu and Kiara! This is so exciting!" Taryn chirped,

"Who're you guys again?" Kovu asked, his voice defensive,

"Friends of King Simba." Riku said, watching as Taryn goggled at the other male lion. He narrowed his eyes, not liking his attention being gone. As Alex and Sora got closer, Alex smirked,

"Crushing on lions is bestiality Taryn." She said calmly, startling all involved.

"It's not if I'm a lion too!" Taryn shot back, and then realizing what she had said immediately began to shake her head, "That's not what I meant! I don't…"

Riku eyed her skeptically, taking one of his massive paws and sliding her towards him as he watched Kovu with wary eyes. Kiara smiled warmly at the foursome, stepping forward and wrapping her tail around Kovu's neck affectionately, "They won't cause any harm, leave them alone Kovu."

"Kiara…" His eyes met hers and they shared a special moment, he nodded, "Alright."

"Curious, how do you know my father?" Kiara asked, tilting her head to the side.

Sora faltered, "Your…father? Wait—Simba's your father?"

Alex giggled as she watched Sora stumbled back a few paces before falling on his butt, completely overwhelmed by what the young lioness had just told him. It seemed like just yesterday that he was here in the Pridelands helping Simba and Nala take care of the heartless problems, and now they had a daughter together? How crazy was that?

Taryn nuzzled in to Riku's silver mane, he still smelled absolutely amazing, even as a lion! Riku's turquoise eyes slid downwards to watch her, taking on a more protective stance, despite the fact that he knew Kovu and Kiara were friends. The tiny cub grinned a big toothy grin, playing with his silken hair.

"Mm, you're so warm." She mumbled against him, stifling a yawn in to his mane before climbing up on to his back and nibbling on his ear.

Alex tilted her head to the side as she watched her friend nuzzle in to Riku affectionately, slightly jealous that they seemed so close already while she and Sora were still at the holding hands stage. She bit her lip, stepping closer to the dark brown cub and nudging him lightly. Sora smiled, nudging her back playfully.

"Can you take us to see Simba?" Riku asked.

Kiara and Kovu exchanged worried glances.

"I..uh…sure…" She answered hesitantly.

As the group moved towards Pride Rock, not many words were spoken, but as they started to get a bit far away, Alex doubled back and disappeared from view for a few minutes,

"Where are you going?" Sora called after her worriedly, but before she could respond, she came back in the mouth of Axel with Roxas in tow.

"Don't worry Loverboy, she's fine." Axel said with a grin. He dropped her next to Sora, where she landed with a small padding noise on the ground.

They continued to walk, and the more of them there were, the more anxious Kovu seemed. As they reached Pride Rock they were told to wait at the bottom of a massive pile of rocks on the side where the lions used to get up and down. They nodded, and Sora moved to the front, to avoid confusion. They were gone for a few minutes, until above them appeared a massive male lion. Sora smiled, and Simba seemed to recognize him right away,

"Sora!" He said warmly, moving down the rock towards them eying everyone else. He noticed Donald and Goofy, he nodded to them, and he spoke to everyone else,

"Welcome to Pride Rock." He said, bowing. He assumed friends of Sora were friends of his.

Simba's eyes landed on his daughter who was desperately wishing that she hadn't mentioned anything to Sora and his friends about her ties with the King, "Kiara! Where have you been, I've had search parties sent out to find yo-YOU! What're you doing in the Pride Lands? You were exiled, leave now!"

Kovu's ears flattened against his head and he began to back away before Kiara stepped infront of him, effectively blocking Simba from attacking her beloved.

"Father you're being unreasonable! Kovu would never ambush you, he's a good guy!" She argued.

Sora and the others stood their ground, confused by the situation taking place and the two snarling lions before them. Riku instinctively stepped forward so that he was standing protectively over Taryn who was cowering in fright at the scene.

Axel followed suit, placing Alex on the ground and stepping in front of both her and Roxas (despite the fact that the boy could no doubtedly take care of himself).

Alex blinked from behind Axel's legs. She could see legs, and hear loud noises. She winced and she looked towards Sora, who stood mildly in the middle of the larger lions with Donald and Goofy. His expression was surprisingly stonefaced. She looked as Kiara looked back towards him,

"You! You're friends with Daddy! Make him listen to me!" She cried. Sora's eyes widened,

"I…uh, I'm not sure what to say, I don't really know what's going on."

"Don't bring Sora and his...companions into this, my judgment stands, he's exiled." Simba said loudly, making Alex wince again. Taryn looked up towards Riku, and she pushed her face into his leg. Simba moved past Kiara, and Kovu backed away, slowly, off of the rock. He didn't want violence. He took one last dejected look at Kiara and he moved down the rock. Kiara took off past her father, into the cave, and Simba sighed, looking back towards Sora and his friends.

"It's been a while Sora...but I'm glad to see you back." He said, looking the diverse looking group of lions over. Simba couldn't discern if the lions were friends of Sora's or lions he'd met along his travels here, vagabonds potentially. The way two of the males stood over the cubs reminded him of the way he was with Kiara.

"I'm sorry you had to see that…friends of Sora are friends of mine, come stay, I suppose I can explain the meaning of that in the morning." Sora and his group nodded, Riku and Axel lifting the smallest lions and carrying them past the lionesses and into the cave atop the massive rock.

"Why don't I get piggy back rides?" Sora frowned, struggling to climb atop the large sleeping rock where the leaders of the pride usually slept.

"Because you're an idiot."

"Wha-? That's not a good enough reason!" Sora argued back, narrowing his eyes at Axel who chuckled at the fact that the keyblade master hadn't picked up on the insult.

The group settled in for the night, exhausted from the day's events. It seemed as if as soon as their heads were down and they were out for the night that the sun rose up, despite the fact that they had been sleeping for several hours. Alex and Taryn were the first ones up, much to the annoyance of the much older lions.

"C'mon, let's play!"

"Let's go exploring!"

"Alex!" Axel lazily opened on eye.  
"Taryn!" Riku groaned, turning over so that his back was now facing the energetic cubs.  
"Shut up!" They both growled in unison.

The two younger cubs stopped bouncing around and exchanged looks, "Wow, that was borderline creepy…" referring to the fact that Riku and Axel had had a twin-telepathy thing going on for a minute there.

"I'll play, I'm not tired anymore." Sora grinned, bounding over to the two.

"Roxas, come play with us, please?" Taryn stuck her face uncomfortably close to his, pouting.

The blonde haired lion cub rolled his eyes, "Fine, let's go before Riku and Axel maul us."

The four bounded out of the mouth of the cave and scurried down the rockface so that they could play in the soft grassy land below.

"I vote we split up in to teams, you and Sora against me and Roxas in a game of hide and seek!" Taryn declared, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively at Alex, who blushed.

Sora completely missed the innuendo implied by the other cub and grinned, "Sounds like a plan! Who goes first?"

"Nose goes!" Taryn shouted, touching her paw to her nose, followed by Roxas then Alex.

"Ahh, I think we lost…?" Sora tilted his head.

Alex shrugged, "It's okay, how hard can it be to find them?"

Taryn and Roxas exchanged grins, "Alright, count to 100 and no peeking!"

They waited until Alex and Sora had both turned around and closed their eyes to count before she and Roxas bounded off to find a place to hide.

Sora started counting loudly, but as the other two disappeared, he looked towards her,

"Wanna go somewhere and look around?" He asked, bouncing lightly. She smiled, looked over her shoulder, and nodded,

"Okay!" She agreed. Sora was glad, he hadn't gotten much alone time with her since Axel started playing babysitter with her. He was glad someone had her back though, because he wasn't always around.

"It's pretty here!" She said, looking around. She had imagined this place since she was a child,

"Yeah...like Atlantica...this place is a movie where you're from, right?" Sora asked, looking at her. She nodded,

"Yep! There are 3 different ones actually...this seems to be from the second one...then there's the one in the middle, but I don't like it as much. I like the lions more than Timon and Pumba."

"You know them?" He seemed shocked,

"Yeah! Well, I guess sorta? I've seen the movies enough times to feel like I do. Does that count?" She asked with a laugh. He smiled,

"Close enough." He said with a grin. She nodded, she felt sorry for Kiara, but she didn't know if she should tell him how the movie ended, what if this didn't go that way?

"What're you thinking about?" He asked, as they came to a small body of water behind Pride Rock somewhere. He sat, looking at her,

"Kiara...I feel sorry for her. If I fell in love with someone and had to leave them because of something like that, what would I do? I'd be a mess!" She said and he looked down,

"I thought I was in love with a friend...but recently, I'm not so sure." Sora whispered, she cocked her head to the side,

"Kairi?" She asked quietly, tossing a look to the side,

"Yeah...how'd you know? Oh right...we're games." He answered. She nodded,

"Well, you can't help your feelings." She said with a smile. He nodded back,

"Yeah...I agree." He said, advancing on her smiling face. She looked up as he closed the distance between them, pouncing on her in a fashion Nala would have been proud of. She _oofed_ onto her back, and they slide into the water, sinking to the bottom. As they surfaced, she blew her bangs out of her face, looking at him with a smile,

"Was that necessary?" She asked as he smiled happily,

"I think so." He said looking mildly panicked all of a sudden,

"My necklace! It's gone!" He cried, spinning around as the shiny crown floated past her. She grinned, snagging it in her teeth and pulling herself back up as he looked at her,

"Come get it if you want it!" She said with a grin, taking off with his necklace. He growled lightly and took off after her,

"Oh don't worry, I'll get it." He said happily as he did.

Taryn and Roxas had found a pretty beast hiding spot between two large boulders; it was a small crevice just big enough for the two small cubs to squeeze in to. They were certain that Sora and Alex wouldn't think twice about looking for them there. The smaller of the two began to feel the growing anticipation of the game course through her and she bit her lip.

"Um…"

Roxas turned his gaze to her, moving his head the best that he could to look at her in their cramped quarters, "What is it?"

"I have to pee."

He groaned, "Are you serious?"

"As serious as Sirius Black." She replied solemnly.

"…what?"

"Nevermind." She glanced out of the entrance, "You know, we've been in here for about 30 minutes...now either they really suck at this game or-"

Roxas seemed to pick up on her train of thought and cut her off, "—they never even came looking for us to begin with."

She nodded.

"Let's go see what's holding them up, yeah?" Roxas smirked mischievously, pushing himself off the dirt floor of the cavern, followed by Taryn who stumbled out of the mouth of the entrance and ran right in to the spiky blonde haired cub.

"Could you be any more uncoordinated?" He laughed, helping her to her feet.

The two cubs wandered about the pridelands for a good 15 minutes or so before coming across an oasis area where they heard a series of giggles and splashes. Roxas stopped in mid-step, taking his tail and holding it in front of her as a signal to stop walking and to be quiet so they could investigate further. The two crouched low against the ground, slinking through the tall grass until they were able to see the small pond where Alex and Sora were ontop of each other.

Roxas made a face of disgust while Taryn's expression was inbetween being proud and annoyed; annoyed at the fact that she and Roxas had been left hiding for half an hour while Alex and Sora ran off together.

The two by the pond were in a very compromising position, Alex was lying on the ground with Sora mounted awkwardly on her back.

"Apparently you two don't understand the concept of Hide and Seek. You see, we, as in me and Roxas, hide while you, Alex and Sora, SEEK us." Taryn stepped forward, startling Alex and Sora, "But from the looks of it you two were either shagging, about to shag, or just finished shagging. Either way I think there's only one thing left to do in this situation…"

She and Roxas exchanged a smirk before both darting off towards Pride Rock together, intent on telling Axel what they had seen.

"What? Where are you guys going? It's not what it looks like!" Alex cried out desperately.

"Consider this pay back for leaving me and Roxas in a hole in the wall for half an hour!" Taryn called back over her shoulder tauntingly.

Close to the early crack of early afternoon, Axel strode out of the sleeping area of Pride Rock. He was beginning to wonder where the Hooligan (hoolicans) had run off to. He didn't have to wonder for long when he could hear the four of them running back towards Pride Rock. As he started to approach to look for them, they shot up from the side as if racing,

"AXEL! WE CAUGHT SORA SHAGGING ALEX!" Taryn screamed breathlessly. Roxas nodded,

"Yeah…" He agreed. Alex and Sora got up the rock a second after them,

"NO! It wasn't what it looked like!" Sora cried, he sounded scared, his voice cracking. Alex nodded,

"I took his necklace, and you guys just walked up at the wrong time!"

"I'm sure we did." Taryn shot back, smirking. Axel's glare was darker than his red hair. He felt like an angry mother and overprotective father all at once. He strode forward quickly, Roxas and Taryn being pushed aside,

"You did what?" He growled at the now cowering keybearer.

"Axel! He didn't do anything!"

"I'm sure he didn't." He growled, grabbing her by the back of the neck and hauling her off into the darkness of the sleeping area again. Most had heard the commotion and came outside. Sora looked to be on the verge of tears, Alex seemed to have lost her freedom, and Taryn and Roxas seemed to find everything hilarious.

-

"I don't see this as fair." Alex griped, lying between the massive paws of the pale, red maned lion.

"I'm sure you don't." Axel said, licking her head like a mother lion would her cub. She moved with the motions of his massive tongue on her head, but she didn't move too much.

"You're not my mom." She informed him,

"Yes, well since Heartless took over your world, and you seem to be an orphan now, I feel bad for you, and am watching you. Teenage boys are bad news." Axel said...sounding a lot like her mother.

"Okay Mom." She said, snuggling into him. She couldn't say she minded, no she didn't like him being mean to Sora, but she was never as strong as she led on to be, and she had been rather close with her parents, having someone to fill the void was nice, she would never deny that.

"Can you try to be nicer to Sora?" She asked, rolling over onto her back, reaching a tiny paw out to bat his much larger head. He sighed, overly dramatically and his green eyes looked down at her, shining lightly,

"I guess." He sighed, rolling his eyes. She smiled,

"Thank you. Since you're my mom now, I wanna call you mom, and make you buy me stuff and cook for me since I can't cook. I think you should get a pink apron that says "kiss the cook" too!" She yammered on, he toned out most of what she said, girl spoke so damn fast he could hardly follow it, but regardless of all that...he was still slightly confused as to why he had decided to play mom to an orphan from some weird world, but he had...and he didn't regret it, not at all.

Taryn's jaw dropped at how easily Axel had forgiven Alex and Sora, "You're gonna forgive them that easily? Even after Alex touched Sora's furry lion peepee? I didn't mention it before because I thought it wasn't appropriate…I'm still scarred from seeing it but—"

Roxas padded forward on his little lion feet and nodded, "—I didn't believe my eyes at first but then Sora flipped Alex over on her back and he—"

"—inserted his—"

Axel didn't even stay to listen to the rest of what Taryn and his bestfriend had to say because he stood up abruptly and stalked out of the cave in search of the young keyblade master, leaving scorched pawprints in his wake. Alex jumped up, panicked and turned to glare at the now snickering Taryn and Roxas. For a moment she was surprised that Roxas was expressing such a joyous emotion, but maybe that meant that he was finally loosening up around them…that or her friend had gotten closer to him to where he felt comfortable enough to laugh like that.

"Guys! Why'd you lie to him like that? He's gonna kill Sora after that lie you told him!" Alex cried out, bounding after Axel once she heard a terrified shriek that could have only come from Sora.

Tilting her head to the side Taryn glanced over at her blonde haired friend, "Do you think we may have overdone it?"

Roxas smirked, "It needed to be done."

"What needed to be done? By the way, do you guys know why Axel is trying to maul Sora?" Riku sauntered over to the two of them, narrowing his eyes at Roxas, keeping a distrustful eye on the boy the entire time.

"Well…" Taryn and Roxas exchanged glances, which didn't go unnoticed by the silverette, who cocked an eyebrow at them.

"We didn't have sex!" Alex screeched, "Stop biting him! Oh God, if you weren't so mad this would be so hot!"  
"What? You think Sora and I as a couple is…? What is WRONG with you?" Axel retorted in disgust.

"Oh, so you're behind that mess then?" Riku chuckled, nudging Taryn 's belly with his nose, effectively knocking her off her feet.

"_Oof_, Riku!" She giggled.

Roxas rolled his eyes, "You know how bad that looks to outsiders? A grown lion flirting with a little cub, you should keep your hormones in check, at least until we get out of here otherwise someone's going to call you out on it."

Riku stopped tickling her stomach with his nose and glared at the other boy, his tail flicking back and forth in agitation, "I don't really see why you'd care anyway, it's not like you have a heart to feel with, you're just an empty shell."

Roxas' face fell in to an indifferent mask of emotion, Taryn couldn't tell what he was thinking (not that she could usually, but now it was even worse), his lips curled back over his little fangs in a scowl at the silverette lion. Riku's face remained dead-set in a hard glare directed towards the smaller lion.

"Riku stop! Just because he's a Nobody doesn't mean that he can't feel, if that was true then he and Axel wouldn't be as fun as they are, you need to apologize!" Taryn frowned, padding over to stand next to Roxas.

The silverette's turquoise eyes narrowed even further, "Taryn, get away from him, you need to pick now; me or him."

"You're so damn controlling, you can't make her choose between her friends and take sides like that! That'd be like me telling Axel that he had to choose between Alex and me. It won't happen, we may not have hearts but we've got more feeling than you do." Roxas growled, his fur bristling.

Riku pulled back, his sharp fangs bared at the younger cub, his eyes glaring deadly daggers at his best friend's Nobody, "I've had this conversation with Sora about you and your untrustworthy Organization but that idiot is too trusting, I'm going to say this and I'm going to say this once; take your accomplices and stay the fuck away from me and my friends." He stepped forward, eyes trained on Roxas the entire time, and picked up Taryn in his mouth before briskly walking away.

"Fucking bastard, he can't tell me what to do and I'll be damned if he instills his close-minded way of thinking in to my friend." He growled to himself, following Riku with his eyes, catching Taryn's desperate glance towards him.

Alex tried to get Axel away from Sora. This was insane. She couldn't figure out what would possess Roxas and Taryn to say these things, but she didn't want the large Nobody to eat Sora. She looked from side to side as he yelled about them being a couple,

"Excuse me." She scoffed, but soon enough the biting started again. She could hear Sora crying out for help and she winced(it's worse in person then in the games! xD) and she weaved herself inbetween Axel's mouth, and Sora's smaller body, drapping herself over him,

"Listen to me, please. We didn't do anything. I'm not sure what they were getting at telling you that, but it's not true. Please, please leave him alone." She cried. He narrowed his green eyes, brushing her out of the way with ease, going back to his task. She snarled lightly, and decided to test out her more feline like features. She stuck her claws out, ran back from the group, doubled back and ran as fast as she could forward, landing on his back, her claws extended. He tensed, stopping for a second,

"That hurt!" He snarled,

"Good!" She snapped back, running up his back, grabbing a hold of one of his ears, tugging with her small teeth. All eyes went to the cave as some rather nasty words echoed from inside, and Riku stormed out, carrying Taryn in his massive jaws. Roxas sat near the exit,

"Wah happenet?" Alex asked with a mouth full of Axel ear.

"Who gave you the right to say those things to Roxas just now?" Axel said, Sora laying forgotten behind him. Alex let go of his ear and hopped off his back, she had a feeling this was going to go badly. She nudged Sora, him wincing then opening his eyes. He pulled himself up with a wince. She furrowed her brow, and hung her head,

"I'm sorry." She whispered. He shook his head,

"It's okay, he's just...taking care of people...he cares about." The pauses were winces. He stood slowly, moving towards the fighting older lions. By now, Riku had set Taryn down, and was in Axel's face,

"I don't want either of you here, but it seems your here to stay, unless I just make u disappear, I would say kill you, but you have to be human to die." He growled, Axel snarled back, advancing on the slightly smaller lion,

"I'd like to see you try." One could practically feel the heat coming off Axel.

"Stop it! Both of you." Sora said, trying to be the voice of reason. He was ignored. Roxas said nothing, he merely looked downcast in the corner. As Riku summoned his keyblade, Axel started to appear to be getting ready to set the gray lion on fire. Alex, despite her better judgement, screamed at the top of her lungs, startling the entire group, and making birds fly off that had been perched nearby.

"You," she pointed with her paw to Riku, "Stop being an asshole, and cool it."

"You," She pointed to Axel this time, "Calm down."

"You," Sora's turn, "Lay down and relax, and Roxas, stop being so goddamn emo!" She snarled, surprisingly loudly for the size she was, and she turned herself away from all of them and began to climb the back side of pride rock, higher than they were at this point. Riku scoffed, grabbed Taryn back the back of the neck, and began to climb down the rocks on the side, Axel looked at Roxas,

"Watch him." He said, motioning to Sora as he toppled over a bit, and Roxas nodded slowly. Axel began to climb after Alex, she seemed a bit put out...and he was determined to fix it as best he could.

It had taken no time at all for Riku to put as much distance between Pride Rock and him and Taryn due to his natural speed and agility. He wasn't abandoning his best friend, the silverette just needed some time alone to think where he could keep an eye on Taryn and make sure that those untrustworthy Nobodies didn't bother her.

"Riku I think we're far enough away…" She rolled her eyes in annoyance, dangling helplessly from his powerful jaw.

He stopped walking and gently placed her on the hard, dry ground, sitting back down and watching her carefully while keeping his ears alert for any unwelcomed sounds. A few minutes of silence lapsed between them before Taryn couldn't take it anymore and narrowed her eyes threateningly at him, though she looked about as menacing as the Easter bunny.

"What the hell was that back there, Riku? Roxas is my friend, how dare you treat him like that!" She growled.

"Roxas is a Nobody if you haven't noticed, he's incapable of feeling friendship." He grunted, "He would have turned on you eventually, I'm just trying to protect you."

She scoffed, "You're just upset that he beat you and the only way you could beat him was by allowing the darkness to invade your body."

She regretted it as soon as she had said it, catching a quick glimpse of pain flash through his turquoise eyes before his anger masked it. Riku stepped forward, lowering his head so that he could stare her in the eye from her level.

"Don't ever mention that ever again, got it?" The tone of his voice caught her off guard, it was cold and detached with an underlying threat as its message. She stumbled backwards, tripping over an upturned root in the ground and falling over it, landing on her back with a _thud_.

Riku, having forgotten his anger, was quickly at her side in an instant, helping her to her feet and keeping her steady, "You're not very coordinated, are you?"

"So I've heard." Taryn blew upwards at her bangs to get them out of her eyes, only to have them fall back in place.

He sighed, "I'm sorry it's just…" he averted his gaze from hers and stared out at the savannah, "So much has happened involving the Organization, there's no way that I could ever trust them. You've played the games, you know how distrusting and deceitful that bunch is. Axel and Roxas may be different…I guess…but Zexion and Marluxia…"

Riku caught her eye, "Don't get me wrong, I still don't trust any of them so don't be getting any ideas in that little head of yours."

She huffed, "Don't call me little!"

He chuckled, "Whatever you say, short stuff."

Taryn stomped her paws angrily and growled, causing him to burst into a fit of laughter at the sight of her trying to looking threatening.

"Stop laughing, it's not funny!" She pouted.

"You sh—haha! If you could see your face you'd be laughing too!" He smirked.

Taryn smirked, taking a running head start and then pouncing on his back, nibbling on his ear playfully, "Vhat'll feech you fer lafing at be." She said through a mouthful of ear. He shook his silver mane, causing her to lose balance and roll off of him and back onto the ground where he moved to stand over her. Her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of his lion manhood, it was practically as big as she was!

"Wow…" She swallowed the pooling of saliva in her mouth before awkwardly averting her gaze away.

Riku tilted his head to the side, a cocky grin pulling at the corners of his lips as he caught her staring, "See something you like?"

She spluttered in embarrassment, "N-no that's not what I was-I didn't see a thing—I was..um.."

A deep rumbling vibrated through his entire body and it took her a moment to realize that he had completely lost control of his cool and was now on the ground next to her laughing. Taryn pulled herself up on to her feet and frowned.

"It wasn't that funny." She looked away indignantly, feeling her cheeks heat up, she was glad that he couldn't see her blushing under her fur.

The silverette grinned, taking a massive paw and wrapping it around her torso, pulling her closer to him so that their noses were touching, "You're just upset that you can't handle this." He gestured to himself and she scoffed.

"As if," She vaguely reminded herself of Xigbar, "I could _so_ take you on, 'Ku! I've been told that I'm pretty wild, I could handle anything you throw at me!"

He smirked, "Is that so?"

"Yup!" She grinned.

"Well, then in that case…" he flipped her over on her side and began to ruthlessly tickle her, satisfied by her uncontrollable laughter and the twitching spasms her tiny body had under his touch.

Alex huffily climbed up the jagged rocks towards the back of Pride Rock, grumbling to herself as she did. She didn't hear the massive lion making pace behind her, but she was glad he was there when she missed a step. She screeched, and was caught quickly by massive jaws. She looked up at Axel as he kept on moving up the rock.

"Riku didn't have a place saying those things to Roxas." She said, looking up at him. He didn't look down, and he didn't stop moving until they were nearly at the top of the rock, towards the back. They could see the gorge where Simba had lost his father, and she looked away from it, looking back up at Axel.

"Axel?" She asked as he put her down lightly. He sat, then laid down slowly, looking at her. He sighed, but he didn't speak. But as suddenly as he didn't speak, he was rambling,

"Who does he think he is? Telling Roxas stuff like that? I'm sure Roxas is aware of those things, and he was just making it worse. I never get to see Roxas smile like he has been doing recently, and then that jack off goes and ruins it! I should kill him! But then, that'd upset your little friend, and Sora and that wouldn't settle anything." He ranted,

"Then what're you gonna do?" She asked, getting a bit closer,

"Nothing." He grumbled, looking away. She smiled, and she sat next to his massive head, rubbing against the side of his head, purring. He looked at her lightly as she spoke,

"I'm sure he'll get over it, he's just...being protective. Not everyone thinks like Taryn and I do about Nobodies." She said with a smile, he raised an eyebrow,

"What do you think of us then?" He asked with a slight smirk,

"Well, I trust you and Roxas more then I trust him. He scares me to be honest. I trust Sora and stuff too, but I dunno, he scares me a little bit. And just because I trust you guys doesn't mean I trust all nobodies, but I do trust you two." She said, nuzzling his large face again. He smiled, wrapping his paw around her, pulling her underneath him. He didn't know what to say, but he nudged her head affectionately , comfortable silence reigning between them, until she dozed off, he nuzzled her head, picked her up in his teeth, and began to climb down the rock face again.

"Hehe, Riku s-s-stop!" Taryn choked on her giggles, hissing out the 's's.

He smirked, persisting in his assault on her warm stomach and sides, relishing the sound of her laughter.

"R-R-Riku!" Her expression changed from amusement to horror, his eyes flicked over her for a moment before his ears picked up the familiar scurrying sound of Heartless. He whirled around and in a flash the Way to Dawn was gripped tightly in his mouth, swinging expertly at the monkey-like heartless that bounded towards them.

He easily defeated the group that had swarmed them but as soon as the last one fell several more had taken its place. Growling out in frustration he lowered his body to the ground, cautiously watching the heartless.

"Get on my back, now!" He ordered and Taryn made no objection, crawling up on to his back and latching on to his thick mane, closing her eyes as Riku stood up and took off towards Pride Rock. A long the way the silverette made slashes at the creatures of darkness that got too close to him and the cub on his back.

He scaled the rocks with ease and barreled in to the cave out of breath, keyblade still clenched in his jaw.

Roxas scowled, "Back already?"

Riku chose to ignore the Nobody's comment, his eyes landing on his best friend, "Sora, heartless! In the pridelands!"

The Keyblade master did a double take and leapt up from his position on the floor next to Roxas, with a flash of light the Kingdom Key appeared in his mouth. Roxas was still angry with the short-tempered silverette but once he got a good look at the terrified cub tightly holding on to Riku's mane his eyes softened. In a flash the Oathkeeper was in his mouth while the Oblivion was held by his tail.

"What're we waiting for?" Sora urged, heading towards the mouth of the cave.

"Wait!" Riku paused, "Someone has to stay here and watch over Taryn! Alex and Axel left and, let's be honest, I don't trust Donald and Goofy with something this important. If the heartless attacked the cave they wouldn't be able to fight them off _and_ protect her."

Sora sighed, "Well, you two figure it out and meet me out there."

The brunette turned back towards the mouth of the cave and disappeared down the mountainside, intent on taking out some Heartless scum. Riku and Roxas eyed each other, not saying a word but just staring each other down in contempt. Taryn slid off of Riku's back and crawled towards the back of the cave.

The blonde lion cub sighed, "Whatever, go help Sora, he's _your_ friend. I'll stay here with Taryn."

Riku huffed and turned to leave before glancing back over his shoulder, "You let anything happen to her and I swear I'll personally make sure that you fade back in to the nothing from where you came."

Roxas rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah."

The turquoise eyed lion ran out of the cave.

Taryn bit her bottom lip and padded towards Roxas, who had banished his dual keyblades but still kept on high alert. Many different emotions swirled through her being as she approached him.

"Roxas?"

"Hm?" His eyes swiveled to meet hers.

"I'm sorry."

He frowned, tilting his head to the side, "Why? What'd you do?"

"I mean…I'm sorry about Riku….he was an ass to you. I talked to him, I know he doesn't exactly trust you guys, but he's going to make an effort to get along with you and Axel…for me."

The blue eyed lion felt a small tug at the corners of his lips as a small smile graced his face.

As Axel moved down the side of the Rock, he could see movement at the bottom. The little lion ran off first, and then the big Silver miscreant ran off after he did, leaving the friend of the one he had in his mouth. He wasn't paying attention where he was going, lost his footing, and fell the last few feet to the ground.

Inside the Cave, Roxas looked up, startled as something fell with a loud "thud." His hair stood up, and his blue eyes scanned the entrance, his alert falling as Axel entered the cave, carrying Alex in his mouth.

"What was that noise?" Taryn asked, scratching her head with her back foot like a dog, her other leg twitching excitedly. Axel cocked his head to the side, placing Alex down as she shook herself off, like she'd just woken up.

"What noise?" He asked.

"That thud?" Roxas implored,

"Axel fell." Alex informed them, weaving in between his front feet and hopping onto a rock.

"I did not." He insisted, pushing her off the rock. She tumbled forward, and she rolled her eyes,

"He so did. He woulda screeched like a lady if he didn't have me in his mouth to muffle it." Taryn giggled, and Roxas cracked a smile. But, before anything else could be said, an eerily familiar shadow slide under Alex and she screamed, lashing out at it as it came before her. She missed, and she ran back towards Axel. Roxas summoned his keyblade again, and Taryn and Alex clamored behind the larger lions. Axel narrowed his eyes, fire coming from the ground below them, Alex and Taryn glanced at each other, feeling helpless.

Attracted by the keyblade a dozen various Heartless appeared in puffs of smoky tendrils of darkness, surrounding the small group before all lurching forward at once to attack. Taryn and Alex shrieked, trying to distance themselves from the danger while Roxas and Axel both leapt forward and skillfully began to hack away at the Heartless.

In no time the dozen or so Heartless had dwindled down to just one remaining agent of Darkness, scurrying around the foursome in what appeared to be trepidation before darting forward in an attempt to claw at the two defenseless girls in the corner of the cave. Roxas swung his head to the side before opening his jaws, letting his keyblade fly towards the beady eyed creature, hitting it dead on. The Shadow disappeared in a veil of purple smoking darkness; Roxas' keyblade didn't even clatter against the floor before returning to its wielders jaws.

"Wow, you two really _do_ make a good team…" Taryn mused, hazel eyes widened in awe at the duo.

A light tinge of pink dusted over Roxas' cheeks at the comment while Axel smirked, nudging his blonde friend in the side with his enormous paw.

Alex nodded her head in agreement before a loud roar echoed from the pridelands, reverberating off of the stone walls of the cave. A wave of unease crashed against the four.

"What was that…?" Roxas frowned clenching his jaws around the hilt of his blade, his eyes hardening as they gazed through the entrance of the cave and out to the pridelands.

Alex whimpered, "Sora…he's out there, what if something happens?"

Taryn bit her lip nervously, "What if Riku gets hurt?"

Axel rolled his eyes at the two girls, clearly not caring whether or not the two boys in question made it out alive or not. Though, the group hadn't a lot of time to think as a wave of Heartless began to pour from the outside, and quickly shut the group into the cave in the back of Pride rock. As Axel and Roxas fought off the creatures, Alex and Taryn began to pace lightly. Alex then remembered there was supposed to be a way out in the back of the cave…if they wanted to go see what was going on with the others, they'd have to sneak out. Granted Axel would kill her afterwards, but she was worried about Sora. She nudged Taryn, who stopped pacing and seemed to have figured out what she was getting at after she pointed towards the back of the cave. They ran together back towards the back of the cave, and began to paw at rocks, as they'd seen Kiara do in the second Lion King movie, and just as she was able to, they scratched some rocks down, and made their escape.

In the other part of the cave, Roxas killed the last of the Heartless, and turned to look for him. He found no one, though he did find a small hole, large enough for a small form to crawl through.

"Damnit!" He cried, running back towards Axel,

"They're gone." He said, sounding almost cryptic. Axel groaned, and they quickly made off after the girls.

Taryn and Alex ran at top speed, trying to navigate areas they could recognize from the movie. They didn't have to run far, there was a large group moving towards them, and they decided backing up was a good idea. Alex stepped back a few feet, colliding with something behind her.

"What were you two thinking! This is suicide, get back inside, we didn't say you could come out here!" Axel roared, making Alex shrink back a bit, and Taryn make a beeline for Roxas. Alex started to explain herself when she felt Axel grab her nape and make a break for it. She turned to see Roxas do the same with Taryn and they could see they were cornered. Axel cried out, dropped her as something struck him across the back. All turned to see a pair of lionesses readying themselves for an attack. Roxas ran to defend Axel, but was knocked aside, into a rock, and all motion ceased. Taryn ran to make sure he was okay, and Axel tried to pull himself up, his back looking a bit scratched up, and he didn't look like he was able to stand. Alex narrowed her eyes, and launched herself straight at the lionesses as they moved to attack Axel. She scratched one of them in the face, snarling lightly. She knew she didn't stand a chance here, but she wasn't going to let anything happen to Axel.

To the side of them, Roxas was pulling himself up slowly, his legs a bit wobbly, but he was able to summon his weapon. He made straight for the lionesses, and they backed up, unsure of what the thing he swung at them was. As they retreated, all eyes went to a group looking over the side of an embankment. Alex's guess was it was over, Zira had fallen. She closed her eyes, and looked down at the ground, death was hard, even though none of this was real, or hadn't been for most of her life. She felt herself being lifted as Axel limped back towards her,

"That was risky. Don't do it again. Got it memorized?" Axel said through a mouthful of neck, Roxas walking beside him, picking up Taryn as his weapon disappeared. He nodded in agreement with Axel. The girls laughed nervously, and nodded in agreement.

They were correct, the fight was over. The other lionesses made to join Simba, and all looked to Sora and Riku, Simba smiled, and he bowed lightly,

"I seem to owe you thanks again."

"It was nothing." Sora said with a smile. He bowed back to Simba and seemed surprised to see the other 4 of their group.

"What're you guys doing out here?" He asked, cocking his head to the side,

"Someone couldn't seem to listen when being told to stay put." Axel griped, dropping Alex to her feet, as she made for Sora, tackling him onto his back, Taryn ran to Riku as she was dropped, rubbing along his legs purring. The group said their goodbyes to Simba and his Pride, and they moved back towards the Gummi ship.

x.x.x.x.x

It was still a lot to take in. Katie looked around dazed as she walked (scratch that *scurried*) next to Zexion, Ash, and Marly. Even though she was smaller than the boys and Ash was riding on top of Marly, she insisted on keeping pace by herself. She'd feel awkward riding around on top of someone else. It was awkward enough just getting used to being a completely different creature from her usual human self, let alone riding on another person-changed-animal. She knew enough about Kingdom Hearts from her friends that she knew that Zexion and Marluxia weren't humans exactly but in her mind they were close enough. This was really strange. How had they gone from regular old average Earth to the Pridelands of The Lion King. On the one hand, she was terrified and on the other, she was thrilled. How exciting and amazing and impossible was this? This was something she thought only ever happened in stories. She'd long given up on fairy tales and such having any real truth, though deep down in her heart she still retained the dreams and wishes from her childhood that had once seemed somewhat more plausible.

Besides the obvious craziness of being in a different world and having been changed into a meerkat, she was also taking in the fact that, in a different world they had just practically crash-landed in, they had split up. Seriously? What the hell? Where was the sense in that? She didn't care if the boys had their differences, this was crazy! They should all be sticking together, in case they got attacked again by whatever had attacked them in Wal-Mart. Heartless, yeah? The main bad guys of the Kingdom Hearts world if she recalled correctly. Sheesh, what was next? Maybe it could start raining or something and someone could wander off and get lost and they could all split up and look for them so that one by one they could all get picked off. Wouldn't that be a splendid little idea? Freakin' horror movie plot waiting to happen. She couldn't help but smile a little at the thought of a horror movie plot occurring in the midst of a Disney film scenario.

She'd only decided to go with Ash and Marluxia because she didn't want Ash to be all alone (aside from Marluxia). Just the two of them alone seemed more risky and she was sure Taryn and Alex would be alright with the three boys and Donald and Goofy watching over them. She and Zexion had gotten the short end of the stick as far as what kind of creatures they were and, really, so had Ash and Marluxia. None of them were lions, the most powerful creatures in this land. That seemed a bit unfair but crazy vid game world magic does what crazy vid game magic does, right? Suddenly, her keen meerkat ears picked up the sound of something moving through the grass nearby and she froze and stretched up to her full height (which wasn't very high).

"Guys, I think I heard something," she said nervously, "Did you?"

Zexion's ears perked up, he rose his nose to the sky and took in a whiff of the air, picking up the distinct smell of lion. Well, this certainly wasn't a good thing seeing as the members of their current group were all considered prey. There was nothing threatening about a meerkat, a warthog, a kiwi, and an emu. Well, emu's could kick…but really, what threat could they possibly pose? Then again, he and Marluxia were able to summon their weapons, however awkward it would be fighting without fingers and opposable thumbs.

The tall grass rustled once again, alerting everyone to the possible danger that was about to present itself.

"Okay, please tell me you guys heard that!" Katie whispered urgently, eyes wide in anticipation.

"Don't be alarmed, but there's a lion hiding about 3 yards away from us." Zexion's voice was calm and his face was blank, not giving away any emotion at all.

"What?" Katie and Ashley both eyed the grass, terrified, as a low rumbling growl was heard from the tall blades before out leapt a large beast.

Katie jumped back, scurrying to hide behind Zexion, who had summoned his Lexicon while Marluxia had his scythe in his beak, ready for attack. The lion before them backed up, stumbling over his own two feet and laughing nervously. He was under-weight for the adolescent that he was and looked rather sickly—fleas perhaps? His mane was just starting to come in and was a fuzzy black.

"H-hey, no need f-for violence, y-yeah?" He twitched, sitting on his rump and chewing furiously at his thigh,"Gahh! P-p-pesky bugs!"

Ash and Katie exchanged glances, this guy was an absolute joke. Zexion cocked an eyebrow, "Who're you?"

The lion looked up at them once he finished biting at his hind-quarters and grinned, his whiskers crooked, "I'm Nuka, and you're on our land…well, it's the outlands, but we've staked our claim to it."

As the others moved after Nuka towards a rather desolate looking place, Katie didn't like anymore, and she had climbed atop Zexion. As they moved past a little creek, they stopped for some water. She turned her back as she looked at herself in the water, and when she looked back, there was someone else at her side the same size as she. She screamed and fell to the side,

"Didn't mean to scare you miss, just saw you where here...And I was here, and I just wondered if you wanted some company was all. I'm Timon." He purred towards her, of course she knew who he was, she smiled mildly,

"Hello Timon...I'm Katie." She said, pulling herself up, before he could get anything else out, there was a shadow over them, and Zexion breathed down over the other male,

"Problem?" He said, almost sounding territorial.

Katie shrugged up at Zexion while Timon looked at him startled.

"Nope. Er, this is Timon. Timon, this is Zexion."

"Nice to meet ya," said Timon, looking at Zexion a bit uneasily and stepping out of his shadow.

"I see."

Katie wondered lightly why Zexion was acting so curt. Not that he seemed to be much of a talker to begin with but nonetheless, it was just Timon. Nothing to worry about. She did think it was pretty funny that she appeared to be getting hit on by one of her favorite characters from Lion King though. But where was his other half? She started to ask but then remembered she technically wasn't supposed to know about Pumba yet.

"So...umm, do you have a traveling buddy too?" she asked Timon.

"Yeah," he smiled, "That reminds me, I gotta figure out where that big mook went. We're in the wrong part of the pridelands for getting split up like this."

"PUUUUMMMBAAA!" he shouted, looking around.

Ash, Marluxia, and Nuka joined them.

"It's Timon!" smiled Ash, surprised.

Timon gave her a puzzled look.

"How'd you know my name?"

Then he saw Nuka and began to back away from them.

"Errrr...you guys might wanna look behind ya."

Just then, Pumba bounded up out of nowhere.

"Timon! I'm so glad I found you! Hey, who're all these people?"

"I'm Katie," Katie grinned up at the friendly warthog, "This is Zexion, Ash, Marluxia, and don't worry, Timon, we know Nuka's there. Nice to meet you, Pumba."

"Oh man, oh man, mother sent me out to find something to eat and here I am about to return empty h-h-handed," Nuka began to scratch himself again, "mother's gonna k-k-kill me!"

"Well, we appreciate you not eating us for dinner." Ashley cocked an eyebrow at the sad excuse for a lion, he needed to grow a pair.

"N-n-no problem."

"Hungry? Well why didn't ya say so!" Timon grinned, sweeping his little paws out in a flourish, "Pumba, if you wouldn't mind."

"Certainly!" The larger warthog nodded in understanding, trotting forwards and picking up a rather large log, hefting it to the side as Timon scurried forward and began to pick at the bugs crawling around in the moist earth, sticking a couple in his mouth and munching on them happily.

Katie and Ashley exchanged disgusted glances, shaking their heads simultaneously. Zexion and Marluxia seemed to be sharing similar thoughts for they were eyeing the meerkat and warthog with nothing short of repulsion.

"Well, what're ya waitin' for? Dig in!" Timon pulled out a rather plump looking grub and slunk over to Katie with it, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively while casting her a sly grin, "For you, milady."

Katie smiled warily at Timon's offer, looking at the others. She didn't know what to do. She knew the story of this movie, and Nuka wasn't really too much of a good guy, she didn't know why he'd be offering to...help? She didn't really like it either. She would rather make friends with Timon and Pumba and go meet Simba...but where there was Simba, there was Sora she guessed, being he was the hero of this and all, and the heroes didn't seem to like the side they had picked, and she wasn't sure they'd be welcomed with open arms.

Katie shrugged after a moment, thinking of what Simba had said the first time he'd eaten one. Oh well, Hakuna Matata. She took the grub from Timon, glanced at the others uneasily, then closed her eyes and pretended it was something else. She slurped it up hastily and forced herself to swallow it. It went down surprisingly fast and she found that it actually didn't taste that bad. It was the wriggling that bothered her.

"Actually, it really does taste like chicken," she smiled at Ash as the boys gave her strange looks.

"Well, in that case..."

Ash hopped down off Marluxia and hastily gave the bugs a try.

"Wow, you're right!"

She and Katie looked back up at Zexion and Marluxia.

"Err, Hakuna Matata?" smiled Katie sheepishly.

"Hey, how'd you know that was our favorite phrase?" Timon smiled serenely at her.

Meanwhile, Nuka was eyeing the bugs uneasily as well.

"You guys really should give them a try," said Pumba, "Simba wasn't sure about them either at first but that's all he eats now!"

After a moment, Nuka squirmed over next to them, warily looked the bugs over then gave them a try.

"Hey," he smiled, "These are really good!"

Just then, Katie and Timon stiffened.

"Did you hear that too?" asked Timon.

"Yeah. We should really start heading to the Pridelands, I think," she looked over at Nuka, who was feasting on the bugs hungrily, "Thanks for the offer of help, Nuka. We appreciate it but we really," she caught Zexion and Marluxia's eye, "need to be going."

Nuka stopped his feasting to look up at them quickly.

"Errr, uhhhh, well, if you're sure...I mean, we can help you here..."

She and Timon heard the sounds again and this time, Zexion and Marly heard them too. The sounds of multiple animals prowling through the grass. They seemed to be getting closer too. Katie looked at Timon quickly.

"Can you and Pumba lead us back to the Pridelands? Now?"

Regardless of how the other Nobodies and Sora felt about their current little group, the safety of everybody here was much more important to her than the feeling of distaste she had for the likely event of getting slapped on the paw just because she didn't want to leave Ash and Marly alone. She turned and helped Marly urge Ash away from the food on to his back. Ash grabbed a few bugs-to-go.

"Sure thing," Timon grinned and jumped on Pumba's back. He patted the spot on Pumba beside him.

"Wanna catch a lift with me? That way we can talk more easily on our way there."

Zexion appeared beside her as she started to reply.

"She'll catch a lift with me. That way the weight distribution is more even."

She looked up at him. That was an odd way of putting it but he had a valid point. Pumba would probably just as soon not have to carry the two of them anyway and they needed to move fast. She climbed up on Zexion.

"Alright, let's go!" said a disappointed Timon and they all hustled off towards the Pridelands, leaving Nuka behind. It wasn't long before they could hear the sounds of running behind them and knew they were being chased.

"Can you see who or what it is?" Katie cried out, glancing behind them warily but who or whatever was after them were darting through the tall grass and therefore blended in with the surroundings.

Marluxia summoned his scythe in his beak as a lion leapt out of grass, followed by 3 other lionesses who blocked their path, lips curled back over their sharp fangs. This was definitely not good. Marluxia lowered his long neck slightly, swiping at the ferocious lionesses with his long flamboyant blade.

"Dinner is served." One of the tawny colored lionesses smirked, circling the smaller animals while eyeing them predatorily.

"Nuka's a nice guy though, he wouldn't betray us!"

"He's a hungry lion, I think food ranks a little higher than friendship in this case."

While the guys were preoccupied with staring down the lions, Katie and Ash were having a debate as to whether or not their flea-bitten lion friend had set them up or not.

One of the lionesses ears perked up and she tilted her head to the side in confusion, "Nuka? You know my half-wit brother?"

"Perhaps, what's it to you?" Zexion's eyes narrowed.

"You mean to tell me that he had the chance to catch you himself and he let you go?" She disregarded the warthog's comment.

"Enough playing with your food Vitani, let's take 'em down, I'm starving!"

"Shut-up!" Vitani snarled, "I want to know what Nuka's reason for leaving them be was, you're coming with us, let's go." She and the other lionesses rounded up the small group and herded them off towards the outlands once again.

Ash looked around at the lionesses surrounding them anxiously from where she sat perched on Marluxia's back. This was bad news. Someone needed to do something about it. She looked up at Marluxia who was exchanging glances with Zexion. She looked down at Katie who was also watching the two guys uneasily and darting glimpses at the lionesses, as well as Timon and Pumba, who were cowering. Maybe...if Zexion and Marly had a proper distraction...hmmm. Ash, loath as she was to be apart from Marly for even a second, hopped down to Zexion's back, to his surprise, and leaned in towards Katie.

"I think we need to do something."

"Like what?" whispered back Katie, "We're kind of small of be able to do any damage against a bunch of hungry lionesses and, besides, I don't think I'm too skilled at fighting to begin with. Even the guys aren't fighting, and they're the ones with weapons who've done this stuff before."

"We could create a distraction. Maybe then, they'd be able to take advantage of it."

"Yes, or maybe they couldn't and we'll all die," Katie put on her thinking face, furrowing her meercat brow, " Of course, once we get back to where Zira is, we're dead for sure. So maybe we better take the chance now while we've less lionesses to deal with. I guess you're right. What do you have in mind?"

Ash frowned. Zexion had turned his head slightly in order to hear better. Marly had leaned down a bit closer as well, though he couldn't get too close, lest he draw the lionesses attention.

"Well...you, me, and Timon could all maybe try to escape with Pumba? Some of them would come after us right? And while they're distracted by that, Marly and Zexion could surprise them. And maybe Zexion could do some cool illusion stuff to confuse them too?"

"Illusions? He can do that?"

Katie glanced at Zexion, who nodded.

"That's cool...well, okay, I guess we should clue Pumba and Timon in on this then. Maybe we should try going different directions too? Can you fly at all?"

Ash wobbled her wings a bit and fluttered slightly.

"Not much but I could try maybe."

Katie jumped down to Timon and Pumba and whispered the plan to them while Ash hopped back on to Marly and clued him in on it. Katie then joined Ash on Marly's back. Ash watched her confused as Katie seemed to perk up with a new idea and, whispering to Marly, climbed up to cling to his next just below his head, then urged Ash to join her.

"Ready?" asked Katie.

"Ready," replied Ash firmly and, as Katie crossed her fingers, squawked loudly, giving the signal. Pumba flung himself and Timon directly towards one lioness, who, caught completely off guard, yowled as the warthog rammed into then over her and took off. Marly used his neck like a catapult, sending Katie and Ash sailing over another lioness, also taken completely by surprise. As the lionesses snarled and turned temporarily to face the fleeing prey animals, strange flashes and sounds and changes of scenery began happening as Zexion and Marluxia took the advantage. The distraction had worked.

As Katie and Ash stood shakily, they were startled to find Marluxia behind them, when he'd been ahead of them before, behind him was a large portal, and they were soon ushered through it, and out of harm's way in the Pride Lands, and soon followed by Zexion.


End file.
